Desert Rose
by Nimfah
Summary: One sleepless night Gin gets lost and stumbles upon a door he has never seen before. Unable to resist he opens it and finds Aizen's secret garden. But is he really the only one there? Non yaoi. GinxOC
1. Chapter 1: Twinkle twinkle little fairy

**Desert Rose**

By Nimfah

**Rating: **M for language

**Summary**: One sleepless night Gin gets lost and stumbles upon a door he has never seen before. Unable to resist he opens it and finds Aizen's secret garden. But is he really the only one there?

**Main cast: **Ichimaru Gin, Leila, Aizen Sousuke, Ulquiorra Cifer, Grimmjow Jaegerjaques

**Secondary cast: **Szayel Aporro Granz, Nnoitra Gilga, Tousen Kaname, Kuchiki Byakuya

**Pairings:** Gin x Leila. The story might contain hints of other pairings depending on your perception.

**Disclaimer:** Bleach and its characters do not belong to me. I do own Leila. This story is for entertainment purposes only; no money is being made from it.

**A/N:** I tried to avoid OOCness as much as I could. I hope you will enjoy reading the story. Also I'd love it if you could leave comments and constructive criticism to help me improve my skills and learn what you think. Thank you and enjoy.

**Chapter 1**: Twinkle twinkle little fairy.

"_I dream of rain_

_I dream of gardens in the desert sand_

_wake in vain_

_I dream of love as time runs through my hand"_

Sting "Desert Rose"

Gin was lying in his bed trying to fall asleep, but the sleep just refused to come to him. That would mean another sleepless night. He made a deep sigh and sat up, unable to stay in bed another minute. He gave a bored glance to the white, ridiculously tall, double door in front of him. He never understood Aizen's love for humongous things. Maybe he should recommend to him to read Dr. Freud's works where he talks about preoccupation with sizes… On the other hand it probably wasn't the best idea. He chuckled softly imagining Aizen's face after make he such a comment. His usual grin made an appearance on his face. That meant he was ready to go. Ever so slowly our shinigami slipped his feet to the floor until they touched very soft, high pile rug. Gin came to like that sensation and stretched his legs lazily running his toes through the carpet. It took him a couple of minutes to get dressed and to fish his second shoe out of the bed. The reason it was there is a mystery even to him or that's what he believed. He looked around and took a final look at his room. Everything seemed to the way it should be. Large white bed done with leather in the middle of the room, two night tables with soft glowing round nightlight, dresser and the mirror to the right and bathroom door to the left. Same as yesterday. Nothing had changed. Perfect. After making that final check he turned on his heels and left.

The night was still young but most of the inhabitants of Las Noches already went to bed except for those who had a night duty shift. One of those lucky persons tonight happened to be Ulquiorra Cifer, the forth Espada. Gin simply greeted the said man and walked past him. He was actually quite fond of Ulquiorra and it was always fun trying to get some sort of emotion to appear on his usual indifferent face but just not tonight. However Gin made a resolution that he would see Ulquiorra's smile even if it killed him, figuratively speaking, of course. He didn't have a plan at the moment but he was working on it.

He was headed to Szayel's lab to mess with scientist's stuff. It had become his most favorite hobby. And the look on Appolo's face was always priceless - it never got old and always seemed to cheer the trickster up a bit. Even those boring talks that Aizen would gave him every time about how a respected man should behave were well worth seeing Szayel running through the halls like a madman, wearing only a small towel and cursing the idiot, asking who messed with his hair conditioner and made his hair a nice shade of green… swamp.

"_Some things are just too funny"_ Gin thought, "_and that hair color actually went very nicely with Szayel's eyes…_"

His thoughts trailed off as he kept walking. Now a left turn than to the right and the shinigami found himself staring at a white wall. Something was seriously wrong here. It should be one of the other: either Gin took the wrong turn, which is unlikely, or Tousen messed up the halls by the accident, which seems to be the case, considering the fact that Wonderweiss was at his care tonight. The location he found himself in looked somewhat familiar but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Then he realized this place must be the Captain Aizen's part of the Palace, from which he usually kept his distance. As he was about to leave he saw a door that was slightly ajar. After a second of hesitation he moved in the direction of the door, unable to resist his natural curiosity instinct, if you can call it an instinct. He took a peek only letting his head through the door and was amazed at what he saw.

There was a beautiful garden under the moonlight sky of the desert. Gin stood in a doorway for a good few minutes, wide-eyed, hungrily studying his newly discovered surroundings.

When he finally came to his senses he muttered to himself, "My, my, Aizen-taichou, how did ya managed to keep it from me for so long." Then he softly closed the door behind him and moved to study the garden along the road made of stone. There were flowers everywhere of any kind imaginable from wild dandelion to proud imperial roses. There were many trees in full bloom. Gin just kept going straight along the stone path looking around not even trying to hide his amazement. It felt like he had fallen asleep and was having a dream. Or had he woken up at last? The divine smell and cool night breeze made him feel lightheaded and he could feel how the blood started to tickle him from the inside - a long forgotten feeling.

He reached the clearing in the trees and saw the endless field of flowers. A sudden gust of wind blew the flower pedals into the air and surrounded Gin with a colorful cloud. He closed his eyes letting the pedals softly brush against his skin and letting the wing play with his lavender-colored hair. He lifted both arms up imagining himself flying. It was such a great feeling to let go a little and let his soul fly high into the sky. To the blue sky. Not the dull endless night of Hueco Mundo the one he remembered from Soul Society or maybe even before that; when he was human; when he was truly alive.

He was so relaxed that he failed to notice somebody else's presence. In a flash, he turned around right hand clenching a handle of his zanpakuto out of instinct. He saw white clothing flash among the trees. He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, and, hiding his reiatsu, he moved toward unknown guest, trying to conceal his presence. Gin leaned against a tree and saw a female figure dancing a few feet above the ground. There was light and a warm glow around her and he could feel her gentle reiatsu. She jumped gracefully from flower to flower making every tiny one within her gentle glow bloom. Shinigami was captivated by the scene unfolding in front of his eyes. Gin slowly came out of his hiding spot and leaned against the tree with his arms crossed over his chest, eyes never leaving the beautiful creature.

The girl's height was slightly above average; she was very lean but not painfully skinny. She was wearing a white dress with wide décolleté but it didn't make her look vulgar by any means. Under her breasts the fabric split in two pieces revealing more thin and semi-transparent white fabric, which didn't reveal anything inappropriate, overlaying itself. In front, the length of the dress reached her mid thigh gradually getting longer and longer on the back. Long sleeves were pretty loose around the arms and covered her hands slightly making her delicate hands look even more fragile. Her curly tea rose color hair reached mid back. The right side was up in a bun covered with a round shell looking object which turned out to be part of her hollow mask at the closer inspection. The iris of her cherry eyes were a little bigger than normal which made her face look childlike and at a first glance you would say it's a 12 year old. But if you looked longer you would start wondering how you could mistake such a beautiful young woman for a child. But what surprised Gin the most is that she wasn't wearing any shoes. Then he noticed a very fine golden bracelet around her left ankle decorated with gems which sparkled reflecting the light of the moon. He wondered where she got such a fine thing. Could it be a gift from Aizen? It seemed like something he would do. He always liked his toys dressed like dolls because that's exactly what they were for him in the first place. Dolls. Without a heart or soul, just serving their function to be thrown away afterwards. Sick bastard. But who was this girl? A numeros? Somebody's fraction? But she was in Aizen's private quarters. But Wait. She didn't have zanpakuto. Is that even possible?

_But she sure is pretty._

His grin grew wider and he started singing just barely loud enough for the girl to hear.

"Twinkle twinkle little fairy

I love you cos ya not scary

In the garden you play hide and seek

How I wish to take a peek

Twinkle twinkle little fairy

I love you cos ya not scary"

The little fairy turned her head in the direction of Gin's voice, it took her completely by surprise and she lost her balance and fell on the ground. "Well, so much for being graceful," thought the silver haired man. He came closer and squatted to be on the same level with the fallen girl. She looked at him with the eyes of a deer caught in headlights. She was unable to move and didn't even dare to breathe at that moment. For a second Gin thought he could hear her heart beating extremely fast. It amused him even more.

"Wha cha name, fairy-chan?" said Gin grinning as usual.

"I-it's Leila" answered the girl after some moments of silence, trying to cover her legs with her skirt, which came up somewhat after the fall. Gin's eyes naturally followed the movement of Leila's hands and once he was able to draw his eyes away he looked straight into her eyes again.

"Well, nice to meet ya, Leila-chan. I'm…"

"Gin," a painfully familiar voice behind his back finished.


	2. Chapter 2: Midnight tea party

Chapter 2: Midnight tea party.

"Gin, may I ask you what you are doing in my private quarters?" asked Aizen with a honey voice. His intonation had hardly ever changed. He could whisper the words of love of while telling you to die in the same sugary voice. Gin knew that he was in trouble but still hoped to avoid Aizen's anger. He stood up and turned around facing the ruler of Las Noches.

"Well I couldn't sleep so I went for a walk but got lost a little, ya see? And the door was open… So selfish of ya to keep such a…" he turned, looked at Leila, and continued, "beauty all to yaself, Aizen-san".

"I didn't know you were interested in the beauty of flowers, Gin, but you shouldn't be here," warned Aizen with an elegant smile appearing on his face.

"Don't be so bitter, Captain. This place is so relaxing and it's much closer to my room than Szayel's lab. It'd be nice if ya let me play here," bargained Gin smiling at his captain. He could see Aizen deciding whether he should refuse Gin or not. Letting him come would mean sacrificing his hideaway place, but he had already lost it the moment the silver fox put his foot on these grounds, and knowing Gin, even if Aizen forbade him to come here, he'd find a way. On the other hand, he understood the underlying proposition. What Gin was really saying was, "If you let me come here I'll have less time bugging you and messing with your Espada".

"Very well, you may come if you like. Now leave," Aizen commanded, choosing the lesser of two evils, which would mean fewer headaches for him.

"Oh, it is very kind of ya. I'm very grateful," said Gin in a very cheerful voice.

"Good night, Gin."

"Good night, Aizen-san," replied Gin and in a flash stepped to the exit. He made a final glance at Aizen and then at Leila and left the garden.

The next day Gin woke up in a very good mood. Aizen couldn't help but notice him being extra cheerful today but did not comment. The day flew by like a blur of daily meetings, duty shifts, reports and some paperwork. When the night came Gin headed to the garden. He couldn't wait to get there and lay on the grass among the flowers as well as to meet little fairy again. He didn't have a chance to introduce himself properly yesterday because of the interruption. He didn't know anything about her and yet that female arrancar intrigued him. He couldn't get her out of his head the whole day remembering the way she moved, her eyes full of surprise and fear, how her cheeks blushed from his gaze. He wanted to ask Aizen about her but decided to wait for the opportune moment. It was clearly obvious that not a lot, if anyone, knew about her and the garden, and he was pretty sure that Aizen wanted to keep it that way.

Gin walked through the garden using the path familiar to him. He wanted to get to that clearing in the woods where he met Leila yesterday's night. Before reaching his destination he heard a high pitched girl's laughter and as well as Aizen's own laughter. It wasn't very loud but he recognized it instantly. It was a rare occasion even for Gin who new Aizen for over a 100 years by now. The shinigami moved forward, and a few seconds later he was able to see Aizen and Leila. They were sitting in front of a round antique looking metal table with matching white chairs. They were drinking tea, chatting, and laughing. Gin felt like he turned into Luiss Carrol's Alice who had visited the mad hatter's tea party. But where was white rabbit? He didn't see any. So this was real then.

"How long are you planning on just standing there? Why don't you join us if you already went through the trouble coming here?" asked Aizen without turning around.

"With pleasure," agreed Gin and sat in a vacant seat near Aizen, right across from Leila.

Just to be on the safe side Gin tried not to look in Leila's direction but it turned out to be a very difficult task. He brought a cup of tea to his lips and took a sip. It tasted really good - sweet but a little sour at the same time. There were also a few notes Gin couldn't recognize.'

"It's delicious," said Gin without thinking.

"I'm glad you liked it. Leila made it. Oh yeah, how rude of me. This is Leila and she is taking care of the garden as I'm sure you already know. Leila, meet Gin," explained Aizen.

"Nice to meet you, Gin," said Leila still acting shy around the newly arrived guest.

"Thank you for the tea, Leila-chan. I really like it," admitted Gin trying to keep the small talk with the girl. She just nodded in response and started to rub her thumb nervously on the handle of her teacup. All of a sudden, she turned to Aizen and said in what appeared to be her normal somewhat cheerful voice, "Ne, Sousuke, is big brother coming tonight?"

Gin choked on his tea and it took all his will to keep it in his mouth. He felt a huge urge to laugh and only Aizen's cold glare kept him from doing so. Aizen turned back to Leila who looked very puzzled.

"Did I say something wrong?" she asked innocently.

"Of course you didn't and no, he is not coming tonight. He is away on the mission," Aizen explained very politely, "Could you do me a favor and go check on the daisies. It seemed like they could use your care."

"Of course!" she exclaimed, "It was nice meeting you, Gin."

A few moments after she disappeared from view Gin burst out laughing while Aizen was sipping his tea as if nothing had happened.

"Sousuke? Seriously!" Gin managed to say shaking with laughter and tears appearing on his eyes "Whoz that girl, Aizen? And who is her 'big brother?' Are ya playing a little family here while noone's watchin'? Can I join in? I wanna be an uncle!" Gin started laughing hysterically again. Aizen put his cup down and with a bored tone, asked "Are you done yet?"

Aizen waited a couple of minutes for Gin to collect himself and began.

"She is defected," said Aizen simply.

"What do ya mean?" asked Gin who managed to calm down a little.

"After I made her I found out that she didn't have a zanpakuto and had no combat abilities whatsoever. I was about to get rid of her but she released her reiatsu and made flowers bloom under my feet. That's how I found out about her ability of making plants grow. Even if she is useless in battle I decided to use her powers to create my private garden. And as you may have guessed only three persons know about her, including you and I, and I'd love to keep it this way," Aizen finished.

Thousands of thoughts were running through the silver shinigami's head. He couldn't believe Aizen allowed some mere arrancar to address him so informally. But why? That man never did anything without a reason. What kind of relationship did those two have? Was it a form of entertainment for him or some sick game? Or was he trying to create some sort of normality to keep him sane. Gin didn't know and could only guess. Then he remembered.

"Who is the big brother?" he asked curiously.

"I think you will find out soon enough. Now, if you pardon me, I need to do a few things before going to bed. Feel free to stay as long as you like and have a good night," saying that, he left.

Gin stayed in the garden a little longer, analyzing the new information and deciding what he should do with it. On the way out he noticed Leila taking care of flowers. He waved to her and wished her good night. She gave him a little nod and disappeared.

"_What a strange creature,"_ he thought.

One minute she was openly laughing with Aizen and the next running away from Gin like a scared wild animal. Come to think of it, she only knew two people: Aizen and her _"brother,"_ whoever that was. No wonder she was so wild. Never being around people. Not being part of a group. Living so isolated here. She must see Aizen as her personal God. She would believe everything he told her. So that's how things are. This was getting interesting.


	3. Chapter 3: Ice cream for breakfast

Chapter 3: Ice-cream for breakfast

A week had passed since the midnight tea party with Aizen and Leila. Gin had been coming to the garden every night. Little by little the fairy got used to his presence and didn't run away from seeing him anymore. They still didn't talk but the shinigami didn't intend to give up. Besides, on the fourth day, when he came to his usual spot in the field, he found a silver tray served with tea and decorated with a small bouquet of flowers.

"My, my, what do we have here?" he muttered, smiling widely. He started sipping his tea happily and singing to himself that silly song he sang for Leila on the day they met. He sensed her presence but pretended to not notice her. He kept receiving the tray every night. Three days later he decided that it was time to make a move.

After finishing his tea he stood up and looked in Leila's direction. She froze from being noticed but stood her ground. Gin took it as a good sign and in a flash stepped behind Leila. Very slowly he sneaked his right arm around her waist and raised her hand with his left. Slowly, he pressed her against his body leaning toward her ear. He was engulfed by the intoxicating smell of her hair and skin that was better than any flower in the garden. She could feel Gin's breath and it made her heart beat faster.

"Thank ya for the tea, fairy-chan," whispered Gin as his lips were almost brushing against the girl's ear. He grinned wider.

"Good night," he sang and with that disappeared, leaving Leila alone and confused under the moonlight.

Gin made it to his room and went to bed. He was very content with the way it all worked out. He proved one of his theories wrong and felt happy about it. The thought of Aizen and Leila being in_ that _kind of relationship was very disturbing and now he was sure that it wasn't the case. The way she reacted to his advances was full of innocence. She was very inexperienced and wasn't able to hide her emotions well because she did not fully understand them yet. The way her hand trembled after the first touch, the quickening of her heart when he pulled her closer, the way she leaned her head a little against his shoulder after hearing his whisper. She was so sweet. And with those thoughts the shinigami fell asleep.

In the morning Gin decided to go straight to the garden before work. On the way there he stopped by the kitchen. They didn't have much variety of food but he found some strawberry flavored ice-cream that looked somewhat edible. That maybe wasn't the perfect breakfast but no matter.

He stared at the ice-cream box as if trying to hypnotize it. But it didn't even flinch. There was something missing. Yeah, it needed more flavor. A few minutes later the counter top turned into a mess: nuts and chocolate chips were all over the place, caramel and chocolate stains made their way to the floor. In the middle of countertop stood a glass of brown substance which claimed to be a strawberry sundae. It failed miserably at it, unfortunately, to Gin's dismay. But even so, he was very proud of his work. Grimmjow chose that moment to come in.

"Good morning, Gi… What the heck is that thing?!" exclaimed the sixth espada pointing at the weird looking creation.

"How mean, Grimmjow. Just wanted to treat myself with some ice-cream this morning," answered Gin in a happy voice. Grimmjow eyed the object suspiciously and mumbled, raising an eyebrow, "Whatever floats your boat, man," he said and moved to the fridge to get his milk. Gin chuckled, and, after grabbing the sundae, left the kitchen.

"_Today he is even creepier than usual_," thought Grimmjow drinking his milk, his eyes locked to the doorframe where Gin exited the kitchen. At that moment he saw Ulquiorra passing by in the hallway. The forth espada stopped and looked at Grimmjow who was still sipping on his milk. The green eyes took a critical look at the mess in the room and without even sparing the sixth a glance, ordered, "Clean this mess up before you leave, trash."

"But that wasn't me…" the blue haired espada tried to justify himself but in vain.

"Damn it!"

* * *

><p>In the meantime, Gin came all the way to the garden and stood in front of the door with his hand on the handle. He felt a little nervous but he just brushed away the feeling and pushed the door wide open and stepped inside.<p>

"Little Fairy, please, come out. I have something for ya here," he sang. A few moments later Leila appeared in front of him.

"Good morning, Gin," she greeted, still not looking at him.

"Good morning, look what I brought far ya," said Gin placing a glass in front of her eyes.

"What is that?" asked Leila genially curious.

"It's sundae I made for ya as a thank you for tea. Now open your mouth far me," ordered Gin. Leila looked a bit hesitant.

"Don't be afraid. It might look bad but it tastes great. Come on," convinced Gin and placed a spoon with ice-cream in front of her mouth. Leila looked at the spoon, then at Gin and opened her mouth. Something stung in Gin's chest from looking directly in the girl's cherry eyes. He made his arm move and put the spoon in the fairy's mouth. Her eyes went wide.

"It's delicious! But it's cold," she exclaimed very excitably.

"Well of course it's cold. It's ice-cream. Here, you can have it all," said Gin handing her the sundae. "Let's go and find a more comfortable place, shall we?"

"Of course," agreed Leila cheerfully.

She led Gin to the part of the garden he hadn't been to yet. They passed the place where Gin first saw her dancing. They moved deeper through the woods until they reached a small pond. It was about 10 feet long and surrounded by large stones. The moon reflected off the water surface. And the trees surrounded the place giving it a sense of privacy. Gin sat on the ground facing the pond and leaned against the stone.

"Don't be shy. Come, sit on my lap. I promise I won't bite ya," reassured Gin smiling. Leila complied, too busy with her ice-cream at the moment. Gin found it very amusing how she had changed right in front of his eyes. And all it took was the ice-cream. He should have thought of it earlier.

For a few minutes he observed the female arrancar sitting on his lap. He liked how her face grew into a smile each time she put cold substance in her mouth. A few minutes later the ice cream was almost gone and the fairy was ready to put the last spoon in her mouth but hesitated and looked at Gin. He could read her thoughts by the changing expressions on her face which made him smile from amusement.

At first, she realized that it was the last spoonful of ice-cream then she thought that she should have asked Gin if he wanted some a long time ago and that made her blush. She scolded herself for being so absentminded. And when she looked up at the shinigami she finally realized that she had been watched the whole time. That observation made her eyes go wider and deepened the blush that was already spreading on her cheeks. For a moment Leila looked away, unable to look at the man but gathered the courage and brought the spoon to Gin's lips in a silent proposition. Gin thought for a moment deciding whether he should accept or decline the offer, and opened his mouth. The ice-cream was actually not so bad and he made a satisfying sound that made Leila let out a chuckle.

"So ya liked my treat, didn't ya?" asked Gin after taking a glass from fairy's hands and putting it down on the ground.

"Oh, yes, Gin, thank you."

The next move was as unexpected as everything she did. The girl hugged Gin and put her head on his left shoulder and closed her eyes. Gin was taken aback by such expression of affection directed at him. What ingenuousness! He put his arms around the girl and saw her smile. He felt so warm inside and so peaceful having the fairy in his arms. It was a new feeling to him. Her features were so relaxed, long wavy hair was coming down to her face. Gin chuckled at that and whispered,"Fairy-chan."

No response. Could it be she fell asleep so fast? But it was morning. Oh, it made sense. She must be doing all the work during the nighttime because Aizen was busy during the day. So that's how it was. Gin moved his hand and brushed away the hair from Leila's face. Her skin was so smooth and warm that he couldn't help but linger with his touch. He cupped her cheek and rubbed her delicate skin with his thumb lightly. His body seemed to move on its own and he leaned closer. Now their lips were inches apart. Those lips looked so delicious. Just a bit more…

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Gin-san, but Aisen-sama is requesting your presence at the meeting," announced the intruder with a very bored voice, and yet, it was quieter than usual.

"_Just like I suspected,"_ thought Gin.

He still couldn't decide whether he was mad or glad about the interruption. What the hell was he thinking?

"Ah, thanks Ulqui-chan. As ya can see I have a sleeping beauty here. Would you be so kind and show me where her room is?" asked Gin trying to keep his voice down.

At that Ulquiorra turned on his heels, putting his hands in the pockets and started walking. Gin took it as espadas's way of saying "Please, follow me," and carefully, so as to not wake Leila, stood up.

To Gin's surprise Leila's "room" turned out to be not a room at all. It was an Arabian looking tent with many semi-transparent colorful fabrics separating the inside and outside. Ulquiorra lifted the green fabric letting Gin and Leila inside. The shinigami put Leila down on many pillows which he figured must be the place where she usually slept. He gave her one last glance and stepped out of the tent.

The way to the meeting was quiet. Neither one talked. Gin was full of thoughts and Ulquiorra just was not much of a talker by his nature. The silence was broken by the not so happy Grimmjow who was just turning the corner on his way to the meeting.

"You, damn fox-faced demon, I had to clean all that mess after you left! Don't you dare do that again, you hear me!" shouted Grimmjow. It made Gin come out of his trance and he chuckled.

"You see, poker face, I told you it wasn't me," continued the sixth espada looking at Ulquiorra and pointing at Gin. He looked rather silly and it made Gin laugh even harder. Ulquiorra just stared at the fuming bleu-eyed man and finally said, "Watch your mouth, trash. Know your place!" With that, he turned around and started walking.

"Oh, come on; don't be so mean to Grimmy. He worked so hard. Give him some credit, will you_, big brother?_" said Gin making an accent on the last word. It made Ulquiorra stop in his tracks and he slowly turned his head looking at the shinigami. He frowned. It looked like he wanted to say something but remained silent. Gin just ignored the death glare directed at him and started walking.

"Come on, Aizen is going to be cranky if we r late."

Ulquiorra soon joined, leaving Grimmjow behind.

"_What the hell was that_?" Grimmjow thought. He did not know the answers to those questions but was determined to find out.

_A/N: thank you for reading and subscribing to the story. I really appreciate it. Next chapter is going to be with Grimmjow so get ready!_


	4. Chapter 4: Grimmjow Holmes

Chapter 4: Grimmjow Holmes

He sneezed again for the fifth time in the last ten minutes. Sitting in the library, surrounded by piles of old books, the youth turned the next page cursing. He did not know how much longer he could take all the dust of that God forgotten place. It was quite a rare sight to spot Grimmjow at the library. You might wonder what in the world that blood hungry man was doing in such a place. Well, to answer that let us go back a few days ago when he first noticed a weird interaction between Gin and Ulquiorra, shall we?

Grimmjow looked suspiciously at the moving away figures of the fourth espada and Aizen's right hand man. What was the deal with those two? He had never seen Ulquiorra show so much emotion. Ulquiorra was _glaring_. He had never done it before. Sure, he could stare at you but to actually glare. It's as if he was… mad. But why? Was it because of what Gin said? He called the espada "big brother" which made even less sense. Man, it was driving him crazy. Great, now he had a headache but he had to wait for that boring meeting to be over.

"Grimmjow!" warned Aizen with a voice a pinch louder than usual, "Did you hear what I just said?"

"Um, yeah, I've heard you. Tonight Ulquiorra and I are going to take care of those hollows that have been causing trouble on the north lately," finished Grimmjow.

"I'm glad you did. I expect your report in the morning. Now everyone's dismissed," finished the ruler of Las Noches and left the room followed by two shinigami.

The evening came all too slow in the sixth's opinion. He was really ready to have some action and was starving for a fight. Even though it was not going to be anything exciting, but a fight was a fight. He met up with the fourth espada and they left for their destination. The two didn't exchange a word from the time they left the palace. Grimmjow knew that he just couldn't win against the green eyed man in a fight or verbally so he just remained silent. Deep down he admired Ulquiorra. He admired his strength and his will. And he would be damned if he had to admit it but he was jealous of that power the other possessed, that seemed so unreachable for him. But fortunately, Grimmjow was stubborn and not about to give up.

"We are here," announced Ulquiorra breaking the silence.

"Great. I'll take care of them," stated Grimmjow and without giving Ulquiorra a chance to object disappeared, leaving the man alone standing on the top of the dune. The fourth espada was standing still and watching Grimmjow slicing down the hollows one by one. The blue-eyed man had a huge grin of his face.

Barbarian.

Ulquiorra never understood why Grimmjow enjoyed fighting and killing so much. He wasn't bad at it. He was actually quite good. It's like his whole body was made for fighting: he was tall, strong, with well toned muscles, and the reflexes of a panther. If only he could use his brain more often and control his emotions, he would be much more useful. What a shame.

The last hollow fell on the ground and Grimmjow made a satisfying noise. He turned in the direction of Ulquiorra and saw him watching very closely. Not thinking too much into it Grimmjow flash stepped next to the fourth.

"We are done here. Let's go back," announced Grimmjow.

For a moment, Ulquiorra eyed Grimmjow covered in blood.

"Did you have to make such a mess?"

"What are you..? You mean that?" asked Grimmjow pointing on his red stained uniform.

"You are not afraid of blood, are you?" asked Grimmjow teasingly. The question fell into the air and there was no response for a long five seconds. Ulquiorra slowly inspected Grimmjow from head to toe making him feel even more uncomfortable and concluded, "Trash." And with that, the fourth turned around and started walking back towards Las Noches.

"Che, as expected," muttered the man and started walking to catch up with his companion. With his bloodlust satisfied he remembered the questions that had been driving him crazy that morning. Even though it seemed pointless asking Ulquiorra about the matter, he still decided to give it a try. Grimmjow was finally able to catch up with the raven haired man and fell into his step going along side. It didn't go unnoticed by Ulquiorra but he didn't comment.

"The moon looks pretty tonight," said Grimmjow and mentally kicked himself for coming up with such a lame line. Ulquiorra turned his head and looked at the speaker.

"And the wind is nice too," continued the blue-haired espada and kicked himself again for not being able to shut his damn mouth.

"Get to the point," demanded Ulquiorra not wanting to waste his time on useless chit chat.

"Wha-at do you mean? I'm just trying to keep a small talk," Grimmjow tried to justify but Ulquiorra wasn't buying it.

"Alright, alright, I was just wandering one thing. This morning you looked all pissed off when that fox face called you 'big brother'. I know you can't possibly be related but what the hell was that all about?"

Ulquiorra kept his gaze for a second and with a hardly noticeable raise of his eyebrows turned to look straight.

"Mind your own business, Grimmjow."

That answer was disarming. Ulquiorra didn't answer the question but the phrase stopped the discussion because Grimmjow was too shocked after hearing his name coming from the fourth espada's mouth. It was a rare occasion and he didn't want to spoil the moment. It was nice to hear something other than "trash" or "lowlife" from time to time.

"Che, whatever," said Grimmjow quickening his step but he failed to notice Ulquiorra's glance directed at him.

When they arrived back to the palace and went separate ways it hit Grimmjow. Ulquiorra was not going to his room because their rooms were in the same direction. So where was he going then? Was it related to that mystery conversation this morning? He must find out. And with that he started following Ulquiorra. He tried to keep his presence as hidden as possible but he had to admit that he really sucked at hiding his reiastu. Ulquiorra made a right turn and Grimmjow peeked his head hiding behind the corner. Ulquiorra kept going until another man appeared who turned out to be no other than Gin himself. They started talking but Grimmjow couldn't make out the words to his dismay. Gin chuckled and two pair of eyes turned in his direction.

"Shit."

He quickly hid himself behind the corner and wished he was a ninja to be able to blend with the wall. Gathering his courage he peeked from the corner once again but no one was there anymore. Damn it!

The next morning Grimmjow reported about their mission to Aizen and his leader seemed to be satisfied. Well, at least that went well. Then he started to observe Gin. The man was grinning as usual but something was off. He couldn't quite put a finger on it but his usual expression was somehow different. Was it his wild imagination or that grin looked more like a content smile?

Come to think of it, for the last couple of weeks he hadn't heard Szayel complaining about Gin's pranks even once. And Grimmjow himself wasn't targeted lately, save for that incident with cleaning the kitchen. That's right. The kitchen incident. On that day Gin was making a sundae but that was weird because Gin never ate ice-cream and would he really go through all that trouble making a sundae just for himself? That means he made it for someone else! Yeah that must be it!

Wait. Ulquiorra was passing by the kitchen right after Gin left. Could it be that Gin made it for Ulquiorra and they were meeting somewhere? What the hell? Why would Gin make a treat for Ulquiorra? And then the next great idea came to Grimmjow's head making him wince as if he ate a lemon. No, no, no. That couldn't be true...could it? No, no, no. There must be something he had missed and he was going to find out what it is.

When the night came, Grimmjow waited at his hiding spot in one of the many palace halls. He remembered yesterday's route and had been waiting patiently for Ulquiorra. When he sensed his approaching presence he came out and pretended to accidently stumble upon the raven haired espada.

"Oh, hey Ulquiorra. Looks like you are still up too. Can't sleep?" asked Grimmjow trying to sound as casual as he could. Fortunately, his acting skills weren't so bad but not enough to fool the other man.

"What do you want?" asked Ulquiorra wanting to get straight to the point and be over with.

"Um, I was wondering, Ulquiorra, do you like ice-cream?" Grimmjow asked the only thing he could come up with at the moment. Ulquiorra just stared at him like he was an idiot and he might be right.

"Out of my way," ordered the smaller man, not even gracing the other with an answer and passed by him. At that moment Grimmjow thought about what he said and the double meaning of the phrase.

"Look, that's not what I meant," he shouted without thinking and only after the words left his mouth he realized that he only made things worse. He dropped his head down in defeat, and gave out a sigh. Grimmjow nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a touch on his shoulder. He quickly spanned around and saw a smiling shinigami.

"Oh, poor Grimmy. It didn't go so smoothly, did it now?" asked Gin grinning like a maniac.

"What are you talking about?" asked Grimmjow trying to play dumb.

"Did ya hear the expressing 'Curiosity killed the cat'? No pun intended," said Gin grinning even wider and with that he stepped down the dark hallway. After a second night of fiascos Grimmjow decided that he should find a way to make his presence unnoticed. Which brings us to the library.

Training was out of the question. Grimmjow knew that to be able to reach perfect control of your reiatsu took a long time and huge effort. He didn't have the first and wasn't willing to put in the second. Which left him the only option: looking for information about some object or potion that would help him.

After two days of searching, the espada was on the verge of giving up but to his luck he finally found what he was looking for. In a human world there was a gemstone called turquoise which they believed brings good fortune to the owner. And it also had the ability to absorb negative energy; that property of it was of particular interest to Grimmjow. In theory it should be able to absorb the reiatsu that was going to be out of his control. The trick was his time would be limited. He only had until the gemstone turns completely black and brakes from absorbing too much. But he would have to deal with that. Now he needed to get that stone first.

* * *

><p>Grimmjow was walking nervously back and forth in his private room, clenching the turquoise bracelet in his hand. It was a silver bracelet with ten oval shaped turquoise stones of a beautiful blue color. He managed to sneak to the world of the living without being caught and got the item. Now he was waiting patiently in his room for the right moment to come out. He already tried wearing the said jewelry and made sure that it worked fine. It appeared that for one stone to turn black it took about one minute. It was faster than he anticipated and it only left him nine minutes but he was not about to go back on his plan.<p>

At last he felt Ulquiorra passing his door in the hall. Right on schedule. The blue haired man cracked the door open to make sure Schiffer was still in a visible range and put the bracelet on. He closed the door behind himself and started following the green eyed man. He could move like a cat when he really wanted without making any sound. Grimmjow only prayed for Gin not to sneak behind him again like a few days ago. Luckily Ulquiorra didn't seem to notice him and just kept going, taking many turns. Man, this place was huge. Grimmjow raised his wrist at looked at the bracelet nervously. Five stones turned pitch black. This was bad_. _

_Come on, Ulquiorra, get your ass moving._

Then Grimmjow realized that they were now in Aizen's part of the palace which was forbidden to enter. He hesitated but made his legs move once again. He had to finish what he started.

He saw Ulquiorra make a left turn. He hurried forward and as he made it to the corner he saw as one of the doors just closed. That's it! He found their hiding place! Now the only thing left was to take a look what was inside. He checked the bracelet one more time. Two stones left. That should be enough to take a peek inside and to get the hell out of there. With those thoughts, the espada turned the handle and pushed the door open.

He expected to see many things but not some botanical garden in the desert. The sweet smell of flowers clouded him and he had to fight an urge to sneeze. There was no sign of Ulquiorra so Grimmjow decided to keep going along the path. Passing some weird looking trees he came to a stop unable to believe his eyes. There was Gin laying on the ground among many fields of flowers. He looked very relaxed, both legs bent and crossing each other. His left arm was behind the head. With his right hand he was playing with some girl's curly hair. The girl was sitting next to him but he couldn't see her face. He was pretty sure he had never seen her before. She laughed at something the shinigami was saying. Not far from those two Ulquiorra was standing in front of a table and serving a tea like some sort of English butler.

_What is going on?_

Grimmjow was taken out of his thoughts when the bracelet fell on the ground turning completely black and his reiatsu was released with a powerful force. The trio turned their heads in his direction and he made an reflective step back. The next second a sharp blade was placed half an inch before his eye. A metallic voice came out of Ulquiorra's thin lips, saying, "Grimmjow Jeagerjaques."

_A/N:I hope you enjoyed the Grimmjow's POV. Next chapter called "Smile" is coming up. Thank you for reading._


	5. Chapter 5: Smile

**Chapter 5: Smile**

Gin was lying comfortably on the ground and telling Leila some funny story while curling her hair around his finger.

"… and then Szayel showed up in Aizen's throne room wearing that ridiculous outfit I gave him. You should have seen Aizen's face when that fool started to… Oh, hi there, Ulquiorra," said Gin noticing the espada approaching them.

"Did Grimmy try to follow you tonight?"

"No," the raven haired man simply answered, but the unsettling feeling didn't go away.

"Oh, did he give up already? That's no fun, right Ulqui?"

"He'd better give up for his own good."

"Aw, you are worried about our mutual friend's well being? That's so sweet of you, Ulqui," teased Gin. Ulquiorra didn't find the need to answer that and started serving the tea. Gin returned his attention back to Leila.

"Who is Grimmy?" asked the girl curiously.

"Oh it's our kitty cat also known as Aizen's sixth espada."

"Kitty cat? Gin, you are so silly. How can a cat be an espada?" asked Leila and laughed in a sweet voice. At that moment all three of them felt a strong reiatsu and turned in its direction. There stood Grimmjow with opened mouth.

"Looks like a kitty managed to sneak in," mumbled Gin to no one in particular. Ulquiorra was already standing in from of Grimmjow, pointing his zanpakuto at the poor thing. Well, there is no helping it.

"Calm down, Ulqui, there is no need for violence," said the lavender haired shinigami poking Ulquiorra's sword with his pointer finger, "Our Grimmy just got lost, did he not?"

"Ahhh," that was all Grimmjow could force out of his mouth. A moment later Leila showed up behind Ulquiorra holding him by his sleeve.

"What's going on, big brother?" asked girl looking at forth espada and then at Grimmjow. At the time when he was ready for the earth to swallow him Leila surprised everyone with her outburst.

"Look, look, brother, it's forget-me-not!" exclaimed Leila excitingly pointing at Grimmjow's unmovable figure. That out of the blue comment eased the heavy atmosphere.

"Forget-me-not? That's new. Are you talkin' bout flower, fairy-chan?" asked Gin without trying to hide his amusement.

"Yes! It's a forget-me-not," repeated Leila with the same excitement in her voice. Gin smiled at her and looked at Ulquiorra for further explanation. The said espada was well aware of that and, after putting away his zanpakutou, started, "Leila can feel flowers' reiatsu the same way we can feel each other's. When a person's reiatsu is similar to a plant or flower's she will say that's you are similar to that particular plant. Grimmjow's current strong release must have been enough for her to analyze his reiatsu."

"Ooooh! It was very impressive. The whole three sentences without the need of a red-hot iron," Gin commented sarcastically. Ulquiorra's lips thinned at the comment but he remained silent.

"Ne, Leila-chan, what's your brother's flower?" asked Gin mentally preparing himself.

"Oh, my brother is a chamomile or some call it ox-eye daisy," answered the girl happily. Ok, that was too much and Gin burst out laughing.

"Ha ha. Ox-eye daisy! Ya gotta admit she got the eye part right," gave out Gin in-between laughs, imagining Ulqui's face as the center of a white flower. Grimmjow who had been silent through the whole conversation gave out a snicker but it turned to be a big mistake on his part. Ulquiorra was already pissed off as it was. Grimmjow's negligent act was the last straw so he kicked the blue-eyed espada with his left foot without even taking his hands from his pockets. The kick sent Grimmjow flying a few feet and he landed in some bushes. Thanks to his luck, there weren't any thorns.

"What did I do?" shouted the man pocking his head from the bush.

"Get out of here, Jeagerjaques," ordered Ulquiorra. Leila tried to pull down Gin's hand to see what was going on. He prudently covered her eyes with before the hit came.

"Don't be so mean, Ulquiorra. Grimmy came through a lot of trouble to get here. Besides I have a feeling Aizen won't be here for at least half an hour," said shinigami.

Ulquiorra decided not to go into the details of Gin's information sources and the four of them sat around the table. Ulquiorra was next to Grimmjow and Leila sat comfortably on Gin's lap across from them. You could see even with the naked eye how tensed the sixth espada was. And to make things more awkward for Grimmjow and entertaining for himself, Gin hugged the girl tighter and while rubbing his cheek against hers and asked:

"So, is there anything ya wanna ask, Grimmy? Don't be shy. "

"Um, I…" said Grimmjow feeling very uneasy.

"Whaz wrong? Cat got your tongue?" continued Gin smiling.

"Look, I get it, ok? I should leave before Aizen gets here," said Grimmjow standing up but was shoved back very painfully to a sitting position by his fellow espada.

"There is no need to rush. Aizen will find out you've been here one way or another so you might as well enjoy yourself while it lasts," stated Gin, chuckling from seeing how Grimmjow's expression changed from awkward to mortified. Oh, he was having so much fun.

"Don't make such a scary face. Drink some tea that Ulquiorra served for us. One thing you were right about - you need to leave before Aizen gets here. I'll inform him you stopped by. I might even convince him you had a very good reason for doing so. But It will cost ya," finished Gin.

"What do you want from me?"

"Oh, not much, just one day I might need a favor from you and you will do that thing I'll ask you. That's all," finished Gin and sipped his tea.

"Fine," roared Grimmjow and turned around grabbing his cup for the first time.

"Great. I'm glad we came to an understanding," said Gin smiling at Leila. She smiled back at him then turned to Grimmjow.

"Your name is Grimmy? I'm Leila," started the girl catching the blue-eyed man's attention.

"Who do you think you are calling Grimmy, you b…" roared Grimmjow but he couldn't finish the sentence due to a sharp pain in his feet. He looked under the table and saw Ulquiorra's feet mercilessly trying to break his while he calmly sipped on his tea. Grimmjow took a hint.

"Um, actually my name is Grimmjow," said the espada and felt Ulquiorra slowly releasing his foot.

"Oh, I'm sorry. It's just that Gin called you Grimmy and I thought it was your name. Have you ever seen a forget-me-not flower? It's so pretty."

"I don't think so. I'm not really into that kind of thing," answered Grimmjow trying very hard to sound nice.

"I know! I'll show you. Come with me," insisted Leila standing up and started pulling Grimmjow by his hand.

"I'm sorry, Leila-chan, but Grimmjow really needs to go now. You can show it to him next time, alright?" interrupted Gin as he stood up and put his hand on the girl's shoulder. She looked at Gin and released her grip on Grimmjow's hand.

"It was nice of you to stop by, Grimmjow. Ulquiorra will escort you to your room so that you won't get lost again. Good night."

Gin waved goodbye to the espada and when the duo finally left, he took Leila's hand and pressed it softly against his lips, making the girl blush.

"So you came to like our Grimmy, didn't ya? I'm a lil jealous," murmured Gin without letting go of the hand.

"Yes, I liked him. I hope he will come back soon. But you have no reason to be jealous, Gin," reassured Leila, sincerely looking straight at Gin.

"Well, I don't know when he comes back but I'm sure we will persuade Sousuke. You'll help me, won't ya?"

"Of course!"

"It's a deal then."

But one question was bothering the shinigami. Why was Leila so nice to Grimmjow from the start and had being avoiding him for a week at first.

"He is not a bad person," started the fairy. "He might be impulsive, blunt, and even violent, but he is not a bad person. He will not break a promise he gave you. If his friend was in trouble he wouldn't have a second thought about helping him."

Gin was taken aback. How could the girl analyze Grimmjow's personality so well. She met the guy only ten minutes ago.

"Yeah, I think you are right. He would do anything for a friend…" said Gin.

"_If only he had one…" _

"What about your brother?"

"Uh, he is very smart and loyal to Sousuke. He acts cold and calculating because he believes it's the best way for him to function. But I think he is looking for something that he knows is missing. Even without realizing doing so. I just hope that one day he will find it," finished Leila sounding a little sad.

"I'm sure he will," said Gin trying to cheer up the girl. He was surprised how perceptive she was. He was almost hesitant to ask another question.

"What bout me?"asked Gin after a pause. Leila's face became more serious which made Gin's smile fall down a little.

"I'm not sure… You are always hiding your reiatsu well. And it's not just your reiatsu. You are hiding yourself behind that smile… But I feel I can trust you! I feel… I feel _you_," concluded Leila smiling brightly at the shinigami. Gin couldn't help but feel warm inside. That girl. He had to be more careful around her. He didn't mean for that little game to get too far. And while it was not too late he should probably tell her to…

A soft kiss was placed on his cheek. A delicate hand was running through his hair. Such gentle touches…

He should probably tell her to…

Leila circled her arms around Gin's neck. The intoxicating smell of her hair and skin had an effect on Gin as some sort of drug slowing down the thought process. He put his hands around her slim waist and pulled her even closer. He felt a kiss being placed on his hair.

He should probably tell her to…

...never stop.

* * *

><p>Gin didn't know how long they stayed like this. He completely lost track of time. The girl was first to brake their embrace. She took Gin's hand and started pulling him somewhere. Gin came to his senses.<p>

"Come on, Gin. Sousuke is here," said Leila softly.

"Oh, ya right. Let's go greet him," said Gin and the two started walking. Soon they met Aizen who seemed a little worn out. Leila ran to him and he patted her head smiling down at her.

"Hello, Leila."

"Hi Sousuke. Are you alright? You look tired," said Leila in concern.

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me. Tell me how you have been. Where is Ulquiorra?" asked Aizen.

"Oh, brother went out to show Grimmjow the way to his room. Grimmjow is so funny. Can he come back again? I promised to show him a forget-me-not!"

"Oh, Grimmjow stopped by?" asked Aizen looking at Gin questionably who was standing behind the girl. Gin lifted his hands up in defense making a "_don't-blame-me_" sign.

"I see. I don't know if he will come again soon. He is going to be busy," said Aizen looking at Leila and smiling softly.

"_Busy, hah?"_

Grimmjow wasn't his friend or anything but he still wanted to help the guy out for some reason. He knew Aizen all too well to believe he would just forgive blue-haired espada for marching into his private quarters without permission.

"Ne, Leila-chan, why don't ya make that chamomile tea for Aizen to help him relax before going to sleep, k?" asked Gin.

"Sure. Would you like that, Sousuke?"

"That would be nice of you," answered Aizen. After hearing that Leila ran off.

"How did the meeting with Szayel go?"

"It went fine. He had some problems with his computer in the beginning and couldn't excess research files but he fixed it. Of course you know nothing about it, Gin."

"Of course not. Why would I?" replied Gin smiling wider.

"I thought so. Well Grimmjow was here."

"Yes, he stopped by to say hi. It was really nice of him."

"I see," murmured Aizen. His face expression hardened which wasn't a very good sign. Especially for Grimmjow.

"You have to give him some credit. You remember I told ya how he tried to spy on Ulquiorra to see where he was going every night? He realized he had no chance with his poor reiatsu control skills so he got this," Gin pulled out the bracelet that Grimmjow had used from his pocket and handed it to Aizen.

"Turquoise?" asked Aizen examining the bracelet in his hand before it turned into ashes.

"Not bad, hah?"

"So that's what he was looking for in the library? I must admit that surprises me."

"Yeah, I was pretty impressed myself. The guy can actually use his head when he puts his mind to it. Besides, Leila came to like Grimmy right away. She will be very sad if he won't come back," finished Gin hoping what he said will help Grimmjow a little. Or at least will keep him alive.

"I'm sure our Ulqui-chan will explain how to act not to bother you again," added Gin. Aizen gave Gin an analyzing look. At times like this he could've sworn Aizen could look through his very soul. Gin kept his smile in place, not giving in to Aizen's hypnotizing stare. Gin was glad he had his eyes closed. They always betrayed him showing his true emotions which would be disastrous. He wouldn't be able to come this far if it wasn't for that smile…

_Come on, Aizen, what are you going to do? _

"You are right. Ulquiorra will take care of this," said Aizen finally, and after breaking eye contact with his right hand man he started walking into the depth of the garden where the tea was all ready and had been waiting for him.

* * *

><p>Once Grimmjow and Ulquiorra stepped inside the palace, the sixth espada was pushed harshly against the nearest wall. Ulquiorra was fast.<p>

"Listen to me and listen closely, because I'm not going to repeat myself again. Forget what you saw and heard. Never mention it to anyone, especially to Aisen-sama because otherwise you'll be killed. Did I make myself clear?" said Ulquiorra looking Grimmjow straight in the eyes.

"I got it already! Let me go," roared Grimmjow pushing the smaller man off of him. He fixed his uniform and they started walking. Grimmjow didn't like the heavy silence that stretched between them.

"Aizen must beat the crap out of me now, sending me on all sorts of missions."

"You'll get what you deserve. No more, no less," stated Ulquiorra calmly as they kept walking.

"Whatever."

No words were exchanged and only their footsteps echoed in the long and dark hallway.

_A/N: I hope you liked it. Next time "Endless Night" _


	6. Chapter 6: Endless Night

_Warning_: _ from this chapter on the story will contain some real events from Bleach, which might be considered spoilers if you are not up to date._

Chapter 6: Endless Night

The next day Gin woke up with a very unpleasant feeling. He could tell something bad was going to happen the same way you can smell the rain in the air. The morning meeting was the same as usual. The good news was Grimmjow was still in one piece. Ulquiorra and Yammy were sent on a mission today to the world of the living and everyone was to be gathered to hear their report when the espada return. Something big was about to happen, which meant the time was drawing near. The time when the war will start. In addition to that, yesterday's conversation with Leila was bothering Gin. Did he really let the girl too close? Now was the time as good as ever to admit it to himself. He was attracted her.

Just thinking of her made him feel the sweetest pain in his heart. But it didn't change what he must do in the end. Gin would not back down. It was not why he spent one hundred years side by side to the man he despised the most. That is not why he left Soul Society. That is not why he left Rangiku. Rangiku… She was one of the few people he really cared about. He put her through so much pain. She didn't deserve that. He didn't deserve neither her friendship nor her love. The thoughts made the smile on Gin's face look even more artificial than usual. He had to put himself back together. The shinigami widened the smile and fastened his steps. There was no time to be moping around. Silver shinigami didn't like sad stories at all.

Gin came to the garden even though it was late afternoon and Leila was probably sleeping. He just wanted to take a peek at her because he thought he wouldn't be able to visit her at night. The silver shinigami made his way to the tent he was hoping to find his fairy in. Just like he thought, she was sleeping soundly on top of the pillows. Her hair was spread on big light blue pillow making them stand out more. She was lying on her side, having one pillow between her legs and hugging the other one with both of her arms. Gin gave out a small chuckle and squatted in front of the sleeping girl.

The smile had fallen from his face and he opened his azure eyes to take a better look at the sleeping fairy. Her face looked so peaceful and relaxed it made him want to protect that serenity; to make her feel safe and free from pain. But he knew that there was no way he would be able to do that. One way or another he would make her cry and that day was drawing near. But not right now. Now she was right in front of him, and Gin tried to engrave that moment in his memory.

He extended his hand wanting to touch the girl's hand, but at the last moment he stopped, not wanting to wake her up. Instead he just ran his hand up to her hair, as if he was touching her, only holding his hand in inch apart. Unable to restrain himself anymore, the Gin carefully lifted one of her curls and ran it through his fingers. Leila seemed to feel that motion and blinked slowly. A light smile played on Gin's lips but he kept his eyes open.

"Gin… what are you doing here?" asked Leila in a husky voice, still half asleep.

"I didn't mean to wake you, my dear fairy. I just wanted to see your face because I don't think I'll be able to come tonight," whispered Gin stroking Leila's hair.

"Oh, I see… Gin… your eyes…"

"What about them, fairy-chan?"

"They are beautiful," said Leila and closed her eyes again.

"Go back to sleep, k?" Gin reached her forehead and placed a very soft kiss. A faint smile appeared on fairy's lips.

"Sweet dreams," the shinigami whispered leaving the tent.

* * *

><p>The room was dark and very spacious. Aizen was sitting on his high throne above all the others in the room. Gin tried to keep his presence as unnoticeable as possible leaning against the wall at the back of the room. Tousen was right next to the light switches to turn them on at the right moment. Aizen needed to act all dramatic as always. Who cared about that theatrical stuff?<p>

In any case, all of this looked more like a circus in Gin's opinion. Some of their arrancars even

62 looked like freaks. For example the ninth espada - Aaroniero Arruruerie - was nothing but two skulls in a tank filled with substance of unknown nature. Even Gin kept his distance from that creature. Or what about Szayel's fractions? The twins who looked like melons? Lumina and Verona was it? They reminded Gin Carroll's Tweedledum and Tweedledee. What was the rhyme again?

"Tweedledum and Tweedledee

Agreed to have a battle…"

Gin's thoughts were interrupted as the doors opened and two figures entered the room. They stopped in the middle of the grape-colored marble floor in front of Aizen's throne. Yammy kneeled down. It seemed like he had lost his right arm in a battle. How interesting.

"We have returned, Aizen-sama," announced Ulquiorra looking up.

"_Ok, Tousen, you are up. Turn those lights on and let's get the party going!"_ thought Gin imagining himself some sort of DJ.

He had to entertain himself somehow, didn't he? As if Tousen could hear his command, he turned the switch on and the light slowly revealed Aizen's figure.

"Welcome back, Ulquiorra, Yammy," greeted Aizen and after a pause continued, "Now, let me hear your report. Here, in front of your twenty brothers and sisters."

"_Brothers and sisters? Oh my, Aizen, do you want to play that family game in front of the others now? Or is it a special sign for our Grimmy," _Gin continued the inner dialog.

"Show us everything you saw and sensed in the human world, Ulquiorra," ordered Aizen in a silky voice.

"Yes, sir," said Ulquiorra and placed his left hand in front of his eye and pulled it out. The man didn't even flinch despite it looking like a very painful thing to do. Does he feel no pain when he does it? He crushed his eye and the room was filled with its tiny sparkling broken pieces. Gin closed his eyes and the flashbacks of Ulquiorra's memories appeared in his mind. Those humans he met in Soul Society. Oh, Ichigo was there as well. How very interesting. And Urahara-san and Yoruichi-san?

"I see how it is. So that's why you decided he wasn't worth killing," said Aizen after looking through the memories.

"Yes. Your orders were to kill him if he might become a problem," responded Ulquiorra calmly, still having his left eye closed. At that moment Grimmjow had to butt in. He really needed to do something about that temper of his.

"That's stupid! I'd have killed that punk with my first attack," said Grimmjow sitting on the stone, surrounded by his fractions.

"Grimmjow."

Ulquiorra turned around and looked at the man.

"It doesn't matter what type of logic you use. If the word 'kill' appears in your orders, then it's obvious you should just go ahead and kill the person. Huh!"

Gin just continued to observe their verbal fight involving one of Grimmjow's fractions and Yammy. The sixth should remember the situation he was in. It would be extremely unwise to anger Aizen now. Ulquiorra was doing a very good job at being reasonable and resolving the argument calmly.

"I'm saying that's stupid. What are you going to do if he gets strong and will take us on?" asked Grimmjow angrily.

"If it comes to that, I will finish him myself. Now you don't have anything to complain about," stated Ulquiorra. Grimmjow tensed up. His pride was hurt. And in front of everyone at that. Gin could see anger starting to boil in the espada's veins. Too harsh, Grimmjow, too harsh.

"I see. I don't mind if that's the case. You may do as you see fit, Ulquiorra," said Aizen finishing the argument.

"Thank you very much." Ulquiorra bowed to his master.

Everyone was dismissed and most of the arrancars left the room. Gin remained on his spot observing. He saw fuming Grimmjow leaving the room followed by his fractions. It looked like he was not willing to drop the issue and was about to do something drastic. Gin wouldn't forgive himself if he missed that. As he was about to follow the blue-haired man, he heard Aizen's voice behind his back. The man always seemed to spoil his fun.

"Where are you going, Gin? I need you to finish some paperwork. You know Tousen is unable to perform that task," explained the ruler of Las Noches.

"What did I do? It couldn't have been that bad… We r not in Soul Society, ya know," Gin whined. He hated doing paperwork. He considered it to be the punishment for doing something very, very wrong.

"Stop whining, Gin. The sooner you start, the sooner you will be done with it," Aizen commanded and left. Gin turned on his heels and went to Szayel's lab to relieve some tension; a nice prank just might do the trick.

* * *

><p>Gin didn't know how many hours it had been since he started that damn paperwork but now he was finally done. He felt like all the energy was drained out of him. He couldn't even plaster his usual grin. Luckily, he was alone in the room. Tousen left some time ago and Aizen was in his throne room. Damn him. When he was tired Gin could get very cranky. He lifted his head from the desk and tore away a piece of paper that stuck to his face. With lazy motions he stacked the papers together and stood up. Then he reached the mirror and saw the ink from the paper imprinted on his right cheek. Rubbing it made things only worse, and cursing to himself, Gin left for the bathroom.<p>

It was already very late and the halls were deserted. Gin washed his face and the water seemed to bring back some energy to him. When he left the bathroom he spotted Tousen with Grimmjow following close behind. They were heading in the direction of a throne room. The sixth espada might have messed up just as Gin predicted. The shinigami decided to go and see what was going on, but he just couldn't waltz in there. So he decided to take another rout, which only Aizen used when he climbed on that pedestal where his throne was located. Gin reached the spiral stairs and stopped. He didn't want to give away his presence so he only stood there and listened.

"What is it? Don't you have anything to say, Grimmjow?" asked Aizen. Even without seeing the man, Gin could imagine the smile appearing on Aizen's face. Quite a sadistic smile at that. What was he thinking?

"Not really," answered Grimmjow.

"How dare you?" hissed Kaname, the sound had reached Gin as a faint echo.

"That's alright, Kaname. I'm not mad. I believe Grimmjow's actions were an attempt to please me that got a bit carried away. Isn't that right, Grimmjow?" asked Aizen. Gin wished he could be there to see his facial expression. Is he going to use Tousen to…

"That's right… What are you doing, Tousen?"

"Aizen-sama, give me permission to execute him." So that's true than. That's just the thing Aizen would do. There was no way he would just leave Grimmjow without punishment for entering the garden but he didn't want to dirty his own hands…Gin was taken from his thoughts by the sound of katana slashing and Grimmjow's scream of pain. Damn it.

"You son of a bitch! My arm. I'm going to kill you" shouted Grimmjow but was stopped by Aizen.

"Grimmjow, I'm afraid I won't be able to forgive if you attack Kaname," Aizen warned. The sound of zanpakuto being put back was heard and then someone started walking. Those footsteps must have belonged to Grimmjow. After that was silence.

_That manipulating bastard._

Gin didn't move from his spot and waited for Aizen to come down. A few minutes later he heard his footsteps approaching.

"That was kinda mean, teasing your underlings like that," said Gin facing Aizen.

"Were you watching us, Gin?" asked Aizen looking down.

"You knew Kaname would react like that from the start, didn't ya?" asked the silver shinigami looking as Aizen was passing by.

"I wonder if I did…" answered Aizen looking through the window.

"We lost five arrancars."

"That's not a problem. They were among the lowest of the Gillian. It hasn't affected my plans at all. No one shall stand in our way once we gathered Vasto Lorde together and have completed the Espada," said Aizen and after the pause added "In any case, have you finished the paperwork?"

"Sure did. It took the life out of me though," said Gin remembering how bored he was.

"Well done, Gin. Now, if you will excuse me I shall pay a visit to Leila. Do you wish to come with me?" asked Aizen walking from the window.

"No, you go ahead. I'm too tired right now and besides I already stopped by and said 'hi' to Leila-chan this afternoon. Even though she might not remember it."

"Well, suit yourself. Rest well," said Aizen and left the smiling shinigami alone. Gin turned around and started climbing the stairs. The rising anger didn't help his growing headache. Instead, he focused his mind on moving his feet. Such monotonous movement.

Step.

Step.

Step.

It seemed to be working. He needed to keep his head clear. He finally reached the top where Aizen's throne was located. He passed it and looked down. There was still blood on the floor leading away. That monster and his lapdog Kaname. All of this made Gin sick, but there was no helping it. He was actually part of this madness. Gin jumped from the stone platform slowing down his fall near the ground and started following the bloodstains like a Hansel from the fairy tale. He didn't even know why he was doing it. He blamed it all on his mind being half asleep.

A few minutes later the shinigami was standing in front the blue-haired espada's door trying to remember the reason he came. After failing to perform the said task, Gin simply knocked on the door. There was no response but some cursing could be heard from the other side of the door. Gin knocked louder. After the sound of approaching footsteps, the door swung wide open and very angry looking Grimmjow appeared.

"Who the hell is it?!" shouted the espada. He wanted to appear intimidating but the pain was written all over his face.

"Oh, it's you. What do you want? Came to have some fun?! Look, my arm is missing! I think it's f**ing hilarious!" screamed Grimmjow pressing a towel against the wound. Gin pretended he didn't hear the outburst and calmly passed by the fuming man. The room was a mess: blood stains on the floor and cobalt blue carpet, medical items were all over the place, bloody bandages…

"Oh, I see ya got new carpet… But, ya know, those blood stains are very hard to remove," said Gin trying to sound very concerned.

"Hah?! Carpet?! Are you…" started Grimmjow but he couldn't continue. Right in front of him Gin started taking off his white cloak revealing a long black kimono underneath. Gin folded the part of closing and put it on the edge of the bed. After that Gin slowly tugged on his left sleeve letting if slip down his shoulder. The movement made the desired effect - Grimmjow's face turned as pale as chalk.

"Why are you ta-taking the damn clothes off?!" Grimmjow finally managed to ask when Gin's top part of his kimono was hanging down, revealing his bare chest.

"Oh, Grimmy. If I was just a tiniest bit less tired than I am I would mess with ya some more, but just for today let's skip the pleasantries and let me help ya with that wound of yours," said Gin tiredly. Only at that moment Grimmjow finally noticed that usual grin was gone and replaced with a weak smile.

"But why….?" asked the dumbfounded espada.

"Well, that's easy. You'll owe me one more favor! Be careful because at the rate ya r going, soon you'll turn into my personal slave," Gin joked sounding slightly cheered up. There was nothing like a nice prank after all. And before Grimmjow could throw another tantrum, he added, "Now, did ya stop the bleedin'?"

"I think so…"

"Used antiseptic?"

"Yeah…"

"Ummm… Let me see."

Gin stepped closer. Grimmjow seemed hesitant at first but then he slowly removed the towel letting Gin take a look. The bleeding almost stopped thanks to the arrancar's fast regeneration but it still looked raw. The shinigami frowned and started looking for some antiseptic among many bottles on the floor. It didn't take him long and with a smooth motion he opened the bottle and stepped closer to injured man.

"I told you I did it already," started Grimmjow backing up.

"And I told ya I'm tired so will ya be so nice an' shut up."

Being left with no choice the man complied letting Gin treat his wound. Grimmjow hissed from pain when the liquid connected with his wound, but otherwise said nothing. After finishing that Gin made Grimmjow sit on the bed and brought some clean rolls of bandage from the bathroom. He sat next to Grimmjow and started bandaging.

"Why didn't ya go to Szayel? He would patch ya up in no time," Gin wondered breaking the silence.

"No way I'm going to that freak's laboratory ever again! Today was enough!" said Grimmjow angrily.

"Oh, did he do that stitch on your chest? I know, sometimes he can get out of control with his experiments. Here. Ya done. But ya still need to go to Szayel's lab tomorrow. Ya'll need someone to change those bandaged for ya, and I don't think your fractions are going to help," Gin said standing up.

He went to the bathroom to wash away the blood from his hands. When he came back to the room, he put back up his kimono and went to grab his cloak which he took off to avoid it getting stained by the blood, and put it on. Gin looked at Grimmjow, who still sat on his bed looking at his feet.

"Good night, Grimmy," Gin said using the most cheerful intonation he could muster at the moment. There was no answer. Gin opened the door and right before it closed he heard "Thank you" being whispered.

"You can't put 'thank you' in your pocket," mumbled Gin, chuckling. He hurried back to his room to get some sleep at last, hoping for that endless night to finally be over.

_A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. The next one will be about Gin and Leila's first date. Thanks for reading._


	7. Chapter 7: The Sun

Chapter 7: The Sun

The next day Gin overslept and was late for the meeting. Aizen announced that due to the injury Grimmjow would no longer be able to hold his title of the sixth espada. He was replaced by the guy named Luppi. He was young and looked like the sad clown Pierrot with his baggy clothes and overly long sleeves. Ulquiorra's makeup would have finished the image perfectly except the new espada was far from being a melancholic character. His ostentatious arrogance, sarcastic and cruel nature made him a perfect new target for Gin to take out his stress on. There was no need to tell that Grimmjow was furious and hated his replacement's guts. Other than that, things remained normal and Gin hoped it would stay that way for a bit longer.

After the meeting Aizen let him off for the day as a reward for doing a great job with the papers yesterday. Gin didn't argue with that, using Aizen's good mood he went to his room to take a nap. The smiling shinigami fell down on his bed without even bothering to take his clothes off. Without turning his head, Gin reached for a night table and found a sleep mask. With a lazy motion he put it over his eyes and steeped into slumber.

Gin liked dreaming. Most of his dreams were bizarre and surrealistic but always very vivid. Sometimes he dreamed about having wings like a bird and flying high above the ground; sometimes he dreamed about running through the morning forest, rushing to meet someone who was waiting for him in a glade; other times he saw random memories from his previous life but no matter how much he tried to remember them, they always slipped away after he woke up. Most of his dreams were very light and calming but not all of them. His worst dreams were about his first kills. Those people whose faces he no longer remembered. But today he was seeing his worst nightmare. About the time he first faced Aizen Sousuke.

Gin, still a child, was standing in front of dead man's body. The night was young and the light of the crescent moon illuminated his soft, blood splattered skin. He just killed the 5th Squad's 3rd seat and was standing there holding his zanpakuto. The adrenaline was making him feel high. He would be lying if he said he didn't like that feeling of a thrill but after awhile, when that feeling was gone, he felt dirty. No matter how many times he killed, he felt like that blood would never wash away. And he didn't mind. That was helping him from turning into a creature he did not wish to become. He did believe it saved him from the insanity. He heard approaching footsteps. He knew it was him. He knew he was watching. He finally made the man recognize him. He was asking him for a name.

"I'm Gin. Ichimaru Gin," answered the smiling boy. The man talked to him in a very calm and kind manner. The boy kept smiling. He knew that it was his only advantage.

He continued to have the dream about being approached by Aizen many times and it had started a long time ago. But today it was different. Aizen looked taller, his hair was longer. The child Gin, took a step back from a sudden fear that washed over him. The man got closer and kneeled down in front of him, observing him. Gin felt uneasy under that hypnotizing gaze.

The man leaned in and whispered into his ear, "I knew it from the start, Gin."

The sharp pain paralyzed him. Gin looked down and saw Aizen's zanpakuto piercing his stomach. Crimson blood trickled down on the ground. He reached his hand and put it over the wound, no longer feeling pain. The blood was so warm, but why was he so cold? So cold.

The last thing Gin saw before he woke up was Aizen's face of superiority. Gin sat up, covered in cold sweat, and reached for his stomach. It was only a dream. Just a dream. Gin gave out a long sigh and looked at the clock. There was still time left. He got up and left the room.

* * *

><p>Leila was lying next to the pond, where she was with Gin the day he made the sundae for her. Her fingertips were touching the water surface, creating ripples on the otherwise still water. Some red and white colored koi fish were swimming lazily under water; a small turtle was slowly approaching Liela's pointer finger as if playing with the girl. But Leila was faster and pulled away her hand the moment before the small creature was able to reach it. The reptile pocked its head out, and unsatisfied, swam away. It made Leila smile as she laid on her back, looking up. Between the tree's foliage she could see the grey, dull sky. It was her favorite place to think and she had a lot on her mind lately.<p>

Gin.

He scared her; he intrigued her; he was luring her, tempting her; he was awakening new feelings she didn't understand. The image of his beautiful azure eyes was chasing her. At first she thought she had been dreaming. But then Sousuke told her that Gin indeed stopped by. When she was near him, she felt so happy that it was overwhelming. His lightest touch made her heart beat faster and it became harder to breath, but she loved it. She loved every second.

She cared deeply for Aizen and Ulquiorra. If it wasn't for Sousuke she wouldn't be lying there right now. She knew what kind of man he was. She could still remember his cold eyes when he was about to slash her with his zanpakuto on the day he created her. But it didn't change a thing to her. She was in debt to him. She was sure Ulquiorra felt the same way she did. They were very important to her, and she cared for them. But Gin was different. Mysterious, captivating, bewitching. He was the only one who could make her feel so amazingly warm inside. Leila closed her eyes. The thought made her smile.

Gin…

"Fairy-chan! Where are ya?" a familiar, dear voice called her from a distance. The girl roused herself, heart beating faster. She used sonido and appeared right in front of the silver shinigami. His hair was slightly messy and he had his sleeping mask on top of his head.

"Oh, there you are. Let's go, or we will be late," said Gin pulling her by the hand.

"Wait, Gin. Where are you dragging me?" asked the confused girl.

"Oh, I just wanted to show ya somethin', but if we won't hurry we'll be late," replied Gin and opened the portal between the world of the living with his free hand.

"No, Gin, I can't leave the garden. Sousuke will be mad," Leila weakly protested.

"Don't worry about it. I left him a note," Gin tried to reassure the stubborn fairy.

"Oh… but still I probably shouldn't…" said Leila more to herself than to Gin this time. She looked at her feet as if trying to find the answer there. Gin let out a sigh and released her hand. She felt her heart clench. She felt bad for refusing Gin's offer but the feeling didn't last long.

"Well, you leave me no choice."

Gin took his sleeping mask and put it on Leila. Then, he easily threw the girl over his shoulder. Leila tried to protest but it was all too late. They both disappeared into the darkness and the passage closed behind them.

* * *

><p>Quiet steps were approaching the white garden table where the fresh tea was served. Long slender fingers reached for the envelop with Aizen's name written on it. The man slowly opened it and pulled out a letter with the following content:<p>

"Dear God of Las Noches aka Aizen,

Me and your sweetest daughter aka Leila went on a date. We might be late so don't wait for us. Give my regards to our fourth espada aka Ulquiorra. Don't miss me too much.

Always yours, humble servant, brother in spirit aka Ichimaru Gin."

After reading the note, Aizen turned it into ashes in his hands. With a slightly amused expression he turned to Ulquiorra.

"Let's drink some tea. It looks like it's just you and me tonight."

* * *

><p>Gin was walking through the dark hall with Leila over his shoulder. He could see the passage to the human world in a mere 30 feet. The light was blinding him but he only fastened his step. He hoped they would make it on time.<p>

A few heartbeats later he jumped through the gate and softly landed on the ground. Fresh, moist, thin air got into his lungs making it harder to breath. He put the confused girl back on her feet and took of his sleeping mask. She gasped with surprise, dumbfounded. They were standing in the glade filled with wild flowers in the mountains. Lazy clouds were comfortably lying beneath, as if they had been traveling a long way and decided to take a break; a west wind was blowing from time to time, playing with the couple's hair; the sun was setting behind the snow covered mountains, giving the world its last light, painting everything with the most vivid and beautiful colors: from bright orange to deep violet. Leila's skin looked golden in the rays of the setting sun; her cherry eyes looked more dazzlingly that Gin had ever seen; her smile was brighter than the sun. He had never seen her under the light of sun before and she was so beautiful.

Being there with her was making him incredibly happy. Being in nature like this, being far away from society made him feel like a kid again. It seemed like everything he gained in life was left behind, the soul became the way it used to be once, and probably would become like that again. It might be the reason why Leila was the way she was: ingenuous, open, sincere, kind, innocent… He was glad he could share this happiness with the girl who was standing next to him.

"Gin…It's absolutely beautiful," Leila finally said turning to Gin.

"I wanted to show ya how beautiful you are. See that round thingy over there. That's the sun of the human world. It rises on the East and sets on the West every day givin' its light to all living things. Ya doin' the same thing in Las Noches giving your light to the flowers. You are kinda like the sun of Las Noches ya know," finished Gin. Tears came down to Leila's cheeks, making Gin smile.

"Why are ya crying, ya silly fairy?" asked Gin wiping away tears from the girl's face. She looked at him, her expression becoming more serious. She put her hand on his and Gin tried to prepare himself for whatever she was about to say. But that proved to be pointless because Leila never failed to surprise him.

"Gin, will you dance with me?" asked Leila looking straight at Gin. The man was taken aback.

"Um, right now? But we don't even have music."

"That's fine. I want to show you something too," said Leila and put one hand on the shinigami's shoulder and the other in his hand.

"Are we going to dance the way ya dance for flowers? I gotta tell ya, I'm not that graceful," said Gin starting to feel slightly nervous.

"Oh, don't worry about that, just trust me, alright?" reassured Leila. He gave up his attempts to get away from his possible embarrassment and put his hand on the girl's waist. It should be fun, right? Leila gave a satisfying nod and closed her eyes. The shinigami followed her example and closed his eyes as well. He felt the warmth around him and without even opening his eyes he could tell it was Leila's reiatsu. Then he heard a sound. At first he thought it was the wind, but after listening closely he was certain he heard the sound of a flute. It was a beautiful melody. Then it gradually changed from a slow to faster tempo.

He came back to his senses when he lost the touch of ground under his feet. He looked questionably at Leila but she only smiled in response. The girl was glowing with the same warm, calming light; the same way Gin first saw her in the garden. Now it felt like it was years ago. Gin's body started to respond to the melody he was hearing, and without fighting, he went with the flow. They started to swirl in a waltz; as the music got faster they started to rise even higher above the ground. Leila started laughing and Gin soon joined her. He felt so free.

"Well, I didn't know I could waltz so well," said Gin laughing.

"You are a great dancer!" said Leila waving her hand. After that, thousands of pedals soared upwards from the ground, surrounding the dancing couple, catching the last rays of setting sun.

"My, ya'd make Byakuya very proud," joked Gin.

"Who is Baykuya?"

"He is the Captain of 6th division in the Gotei 13. He loves cherry blossoms. I think you would get along pretty well."

"Oh. I see. Well, I hope I can meet him someday!" said Leila enthusiastically.

"Be careful what ya wish for, fairy-chan," whispered Gin pulling the young arrancar closer. She became quiet, bowed her head a little, and leaned in closer. Gin noticed as the music became slower and more sensual. Could it be that it reflected Leila's mood? Gin reached for her chin and carefully tugged it up. The emotion he saw in her eyes made his throat go dry. It was the first time he saw desire in those eyes. With one hand holding Leila firmly by her waist, Gin put the other one in her hair. He opened his blue eyes the moment before the sun hid itself behind the mountain, allowing his eyes to catch the last glimpse of light.

The scene made Leila give out a small gasp. She finally saw those beautiful eyes without being half asleep. But she couldn't enjoy it for long because the next moment Gin leaned in into a sweet kiss. Leila's lips were very soft and tender. It felt so surreal, so unbelievably wonderful. He pressed his body even closer, wanting to feel her, touch her.

Gin's hand traveled down the smooth skin on Leila's neck. She gave out a barely audible moan and broke the kiss, flustered. Then Leila lost control of her reiatsu and they started falling. Gin reacted instantly and caught the girl as they came back to the ground. He gently put Leila back on the ground for the second time that night. It became darker and much colder than before. The silver shinigami took off his cloak and put it over the fairy's shoulders.

"Thank you. Thank you for everything," said Leila quietly.

"Ya welcome. We can go back if you like but we could also watch the stars. There aren't any in Hueco Mundo," proposed Gin.

"Yeah, I'd love that," Leila agreed.

They both sat on the grass, Gin had Leila sitting between his legs with her back to him. He hugged her from behind, trying to keep her warm, trying to hold on to that moment desperately. He showed her constellations that he could remember and find in the night sky. The stars seemed very close as if you could touch them if you reached out your hand. They sat like this for a long time, enjoying each other's warmth.

Gin's gaze fell down from night sky to Leila's neck. He wanted to kiss her, to know what her skin tastes like. His eyes traveled down to her chest, which had been raising and falling with the breathing. He puller the girl even closer with the hand that had been resting on the stomach. Then he noticed sparkling bracelet on her ankle and her bare feet. He frowned.

"Aren't your feet cold? I'm sorry. I should have brought sometin' for ya," apologized Gin quietly.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I like it. This way I feel more connected to the ground as if it's giving me its power… You must think it's silly…"

"No, I think it makes sense… We should probably get back though," said Gin releasing the girl from his embrace. She turned around and sat on her knees. He could tell she wanted to say something, gathering her courage. He just waited without interrupting her.

"Gin, I want to give you something but I'll need your help. I'm not even sure it's going to work. I only have done it once for Sousuke," started the girl.

"Oh, I'm flattered. What do I need to do?" asked Gin. The mentioning of Aizen and about him being first slightly reflected on his mood but he hid it well.

"Put your hands together with your palms up like this," instructed Leila showing him what to do. Gin complied, bringing his hands forward.

"Now I need you to release your reiatsu," said Leila quieter and looked expectedly at the man. Gin didn't move for a few seconds. Then the lavender glow appeared over his hands, illuminating both their faces in the darkness of the night. Leila smiled admiring the amazing color and Gin's trust in her. She put her own hands over the glow and closed her eyes releasing her own white reiatsu.

Gin watched, mesmerized, as their reiatsu mixed together and a tiny ball appeared; the ball kept growing and started looking like a bud. Then he realized what she was doing. She was making a flower from his reiatsu. The bud got bigger and bigger until it bloomed. Leila opened his eyes. There was a beautiful, white, lavender-edged flower.

"Peony? A king of flowers as the Chinese believe," said Gin examining the flower in his hands. It looked like a normal flower except he could see his own reiatsu glowing inside from time to time, as if it was blood in the veins, keeping the peony alive.

"It is so pretty," said Leila and gently touched a pedal.

"Thank you, fairy-chan. I like it," said Gin and stroked her cheek, "But we really need to go back now."

"Ok," agreed the girl and they stood up. Silver shinigami opened the passage and taking Leila by hand they stepped into the darkness.

* * *

><p>Gin closed the door leading into the garden and leaned his back into it. He bowed his head and ran shaky hand through his hair. A weak, hysterical laugh left his lips. He made his body move but something artificial was in his movements. He walked through the hall back to his room when he saw Aizen moving towards him. A chill ran through his body as he remembered his dream but he kept going. As they were passing by each other he heard the man's voice saying, "You know what that means, don't you?"<p>

"I do," Gin answered simply as he kept going.

"I knew from the start," whispered Gin but there was no longer anyone there to hear him.

_A/N: Thank you everyone for reading and reviewing. I tried my best writing it this chapter and I hope you enjoyed it. Next time Grimmjow is back with chapter 8: Autumn Heart. _


	8. Chapter 8: Autumn Heart

Chapter 8: Autumn Heart

It had been two weeks since Grimmjow was expelled from the espada. He was overfilled with anger and trained every day like a madman in order to release some tension as well as to prove to others, and to himself, that he was still as strong as ever, especially when that Luppi guy was acting all high and mighty. Grimmjow wanted to crack that chicken neck of his. It also didn't help that Gin started teasing that little excuse of an arrancar to no end. For some reason it made Grimmjow angrier. He didn't really have a normal conversation with Gin since that night, when the shinigami came to his room to help with the wound that had already healed by now. It was hard getting used to function without his left arm, but little by little he got accustomed to it, but not mentally. The worst thing for Grimmjow was when he woke up at night, feeling his hand in a dream, and waking up remembering it's no longer there and might not ever be.

On the bright side, he managed to uphold his room in the espada wing so he didn't have to move. When Luppi came to claim it, Grimmjow growled at him like a wild, crazy animal. Lots of arrancars gathered to see what was going on. Some of them thought he had gone mad but he didn't really care. There was no way he was going to let that little prick into his room. It was Ulquiorra who stopped the fight, and ordered everyone to go back to their rooms. He honestly couldn't believe the forth espada let it slide like that.

The other thing that drove him nuts that he couldn't talk to anyone about what he saw that day in Aizen's quarters. He could try talking to Ulquiorra but he didn't want to push his luck anymore. It was hard enough as it was to get used to not having an arm. If he lost another part of his body, he was as good as dead. Talking to Aizen would be suicidal; he wouldn't even know what hit him. Which left only Gin. But the shinigami had been acting strange since Luppi became an espada. Were those events connected somehow? No, he wouldn't even go there. His stupid curiosity got him into this mess. Fox face can do whatever the hell he wants and he didn't give a damn! But he did help him and was nice… Yeah right! It must be one of his sick mind games he likes to play. And Grimmjow Jaegerjaques was not one to be played with! But with the state of things, he only had one option, which he hated the most - to shut up and wait.

* * *

><p>Grimmjow was tired after training and was resting in his room. Now it was clean and everything was in order. Only a slightly different tint of blue on the carpet reminded him of that hateful night. Gin was right, the blood stains <em>were<em> hard to get rid of. The man turned to his side and closed his eyes. It was too early to sleep so he decided to laze out for awhile. He remembered his fractions that had been killed. He didn't really miss them. They were too week and it was their own fault. It just felt weird without them around. But he could go on without them standing behind his back, without Di Roy and Yylfordt's constant fighting, without Shawlong well-mannered talks. He didn't miss them. He didn't need them. He didn't.

The knock on the door made him open his eyes. He didn't feel like getting up so he just shouted instead,

"It's open."

The door slowly opened and no other than Ulquiorra came inside, closing the door behind. Grimmjow sat up.

"What do you want?"

"Aizen-sama is expecting you."

"Oh just great. Did he come up with some other way of making my life more miserable?" Grimmjow asked and sighed.

"You are still in your room and you are allowed to attend our meetings. Aizen-sama is very generous," reasoned Ulquiorra.

"Generous, my ass," mumbled Grimmjow. The fourth didn't respond but continued to stay there. There was an uncomfortable pause.

"Hey, did you wanna say something else?" questioned Grimmjow, feeling irritated.

"No," simply replied the espada. There was this pause again when Grimmjow just stared at Ulquiorra.

"Then why the hell are you just standing there like a pole?!" roared the ex-espada.

"No reason, really," answered Ulquiorra with the same bored expression. Grimmjow couldn't take it anymore and stood up. He put his hand in the pocket and went to the door.

"Fine, I'm going. I'm going," Grimmjow grumbled and exited the room. Ulquiorra soon followed him. The footsteps behind his back made the blue-eyed man uneasy so he stopped and turned around.

"Why are you following me? Man, you are acting creepy today."

"I'm not following you. I have a mission and I need to go in the same direction. I'm not sure why you are finding my behavior unusual."

"But you… and then… Man, just forget it, ok?"

Ulquiorra didn't say anything after that and started walking again with Grimmjow soon joining him. As they reached throne room number three, Ulquiorra went further. Why the heck does Aizen need so many different throne rooms anyway? Grimmjow pushed the door open.

The room was smaller than the first one but it was still huge. Marble dark purple flooring and blue walls, which could be light blue, but because of poor lighting you couldn't really tell. Aizen was sitting on his throne, with his head leaning on his right hand lightly. There was no wall behind, only a huge window allowed the light of the desert's moon to illuminate the room. There stood Gin, leaning on the metal balcony railings, looking at endless dunes as if it was the most interesting thing he had ever seen. Grimmjow couldn't see the man's face but was sure that his usual grin was present.

"You called for me, Aisen-sama?" asked Grimmjow, twisting his face a little as if he just chewed the most disgusting, bitter medicine without drinking water. He hated using honorifics, especially with Aizen, but it was better to play it safe for now.

"Yes, Grimmjow, come here," commanded Aizen smiling. He pulled out a box from under his throne and stood up, stretching out his hand. Grimmjow came closer, took the box and looked at it critically. It was a black, medium sized box, upholstered in velvet.

"I want you to deliver it."

"Deliver it where?"

"You know where."

"What do you mean I know where? Who is this thing for?" Grimmjow asked losing his patience.

"You know who," answered Aizen amused at the man's reactions. Grimmjow started to get angry but then it hit him.

"Are you saying I should go _there?_"

"Yes, _there_. If you forgot the directions I can remind you. Go straight to my quarters trough the arch, then turn right, take the second left, go until the dead end, and turn left again. The door to the right is the one you need. Have you memorized it?"

"Yeah. I got it. But why can't _he_ go?" asked Grimmjow pointing at Gin.

"I need him here. Go now," ordered Aizen. Grimmjow left the room mumbling something to himself.

"Gin, are you fine with him going there? It has been two weeks already. You are welcome to visit now. I don't mind." The silver shinigami turned around and leaned his back on the railings.

"I don't care. She really liked Grimmy when he first came there. She should have some fun," said Gin smiling widely. Aizen came closer until he stood right in front of his right hand man. He put both hands on the railing on either side of Gin.

"Don't you feel jealousy? Just a little?" asked Aizen in a lower voice.

"Feelings? I have none. I told you I'm a snake. With cold skin, no heart, that slithers around searching for prey with its tongue, swallowing down whatever looks tasty," answered Gin trying to copy Aizen's tone of a voice. It made the ruler of Las Noches lean in closer.

"Oh, is it so?" whispered Aizen, putting some of the man's hair behind his ear. Aizen's long fingers slowly traveled down from Gin's ear to his neck and found his pulse.

"I think you have a heart and it beats really fast right now. Why is that, I wonder?" asked Aizen looking at Gin whose face was only a few inches away.

"Who knows, Captain," said Gin seductively, tilting his head a little and smiling wider. After a moment Aizen broke the gaze and laughed.

"How interesting," Aizen said as he turned pushed away.

"Let's go, Gin. Tousen is waiting for us," he reminded and left.

Gin rolled up his left sleeve and unclenched his fist. Crimson blood appeared from the places where Gin's nails pierced the skin, streaming down his long slender fingers; a few drops of hot blood connected with the icy tile, making a dull sound that echoed in the deserted room. A smile fell from his face; cold blue eyes opened as he took a step forward.

* * *

><p>"Che, who does he think he is?! Does he take me for some errand boy?!" muttered Grimmjow angrily. That whole situation was getting on his nerves. He had more important things to do than deliver some stupid box to some stupid woman! That's right. He could be lying peacefully in his bed right now, counting the cracks on the ceiling...But that was not the point. The point is that everything was better than this.<p>

"Now, was it the second turn to the left or to the right?" said Grimmjow to himself going through long white hall. "What was it with Aizen and white? We are hollows, damn it! That prissy shinigami dandy!" thought Grimmjow still fuming with righteous anger.

"Wait, I'm pretty sure it was the second left," said Grimmjow out loud to no one in particular and continued walking. After several minutes, and a few curses later, the arrancar finally found the door he needed. Not so gently he pushed it open and stepped inside.

Suddenly, cutting wind blew right in his face, bringing many fallen leaves with it and one of them stuck to Grimmjow's left eye. He winced in annoyance and shook it off. What he saw wasn't what he expected.

Half of the trees were golden yellow, flaming orange, deep maroon, dark violet. The flowers that were in garden-bed looked fine just less dim than before. Is this an autumn? He was very confused about what was going on. Grimmjow walked along the path trying to find the girl. The rustling of the leaves under his feet was making quite a soothing sound, and the man surprisingly came to like it.

He reached the spot where he first came upon Gin and Ulquiorra when he sneaked in. The table, in front of which Ulquiorra stood then, was deserted. On top of it there were some yellow leaves fallen from the nearest tree and were brought by the wind. One of the chairs sank to its side slightly, probably because of the wind. It was obvious that nobody had been here for at least a day. Grimmjow looked to his left and saw the bush where he was thrown by Ulquiorra on that night. The top leaves started changing their colors into crimson red. Grimmjow frowned and still confused, he made a turn to the right and continued following the path which was leading him deeper in the woods.

After walking for awhile he saw something white between the trees.

"_It must be that woman,"_ thought Grimmjow and started making his way through the trees.

When he came closer, he saw the girl lying on an old tree branch looking down into water of a small pond. The leaves on the tree were bright orange. Some of them fell down to the pond making ripples on the otherwise still surface. The girl's head was resting on one of her arms; the long hem of her skirt was hanging down the branch almost touching the water surface; she looked out of place wearing the summer dress and being bare feet when the nature around her was breathing autumn. She looked different from what Grimmjow remembered. Everything about her: her dull eyes, nonchalant body posture, and slight frown were screaming melancholy. Grimmjow didn't like it one bit. He had enough dealing with Ulquiorra's aloof character, and adding to that some distressed damsel was just over the top. So he decided to finish his business as soon as possible and get out.

"Hey, woman! Come down here," shouted Grimmjow. Leila roused herself instantly and looked in the direction of the voice with eyes full of hope. But the light of hope disappeared as soon as she saw Grimmjow, and was replaced with sadness. She looked away for a moment. But then smiled softly and in a flash stepped in front of the man. She was about to say something but then she noticed his left arm was missing. Grimmjow saw that and how it made her feel uncomfortable. He hated that feeling when others looked down on him or pitied him. And so he got straight to the point.

"Here. This is for you from Aizen," reported Grimmjow and handed her the box. She took it and opened it after thanking him. Grimmjow couldn't see very well from where he was standing, so he stood on his tiptoes to get a better look. He was curious what was in that box after all, he just wasn't inclined to show it. Leila's smile warmed a little as she pulled out a golden necklace of very fine work. It was quite heavy with many details and was decorated with cut and shining amethyst stone of a deep violet color.

"Will you help me?" asked Leila and turned around. The blue haired arrancar's left eyebrow twitched. He was about to give that annoying girl a piece of his mind when he remembered how Ulquiorra almost broke his foot the time he raised his voice on her. It took a lot of will to restrain himself but he reached out his hand. It took some time and the last reserve of patience for Grimmjow because the fastener was small and his hands were big and rough.

"There. It's done so I'm outta here," declared the man and started turning to leave. A small hand caught him by his sleeve.

"Wait. Please don't go," pleaded Leila looking straight at Grimmjow.

"I was told to give you the box not to babysit you. Let go!" said the arrancar, shaking off Leila's hand.

"I have heard what happened. I'm sorry… Does it still hurt?" asked the girl quietly with concern in her voice. That was the last straw.

"My arm is none of your business! What do you know about pain?!" roared Grimmjow and took Leila by her neck. The girl winced but didn't break eye contact.

"You are sitting here in this damn greenhouse, talking about some flowers and shit like that, when others are fighting and dying out there! You know nothing about pain! You are just some shimigami's whore!" screamed Grimmjow tightening the grip. It was getting hard to breath and Leila grabbed Grimmjow's hand that was on her throat trying to release it.

"Does it…" struggled saying Leila, reaching out her other hand for Grimmjow.

"Does it still hurt…here?" finished the girl and put her hand over his heart. Grimmjow jerked back and let go of the girl as if she was on fire. Leila fell on the ground and struggled for breath, breathing heavily and coughing. The man looked at her in disbelief.

"Who the hell are you?"

"I heard what happened to your fractions. They were with you almost from the beginning. It must be so… lonely," said Leila in a husky voice holding her throat. Grimmjow was at loss for words. He didn't know what to say or how to react. All the rage he felt was suddenly gone, he felt naked without it. Was it all he had?

"That's still none of your business," responded Grimmjow in a calm voice and after a pause added, "Did Gin tell you that about me? That big mouth!" He sat on the sandy ground.

"No, broth… I mean Ulquiorra told me about it," admitted Leila. She was finally able to catch her breath.

"Ulquiorra? Man, I wound have never guessed. Does he talk about me often?" asked Grimmjow curiously.

"He started talking about you after your first visit. For example he told me that story, when the new espada came to move into your room and you made a big fuss about it. Then he started talking about some stray cats that should be put away which I didn't really understand."

"_Stray cats?! That son of a…"_

"How is Gin doing?" asked Leila after a pause.

"He is doing fine… for him. Always walking with that creepy smile of his and hanging out with that clown Luppi… wait, why are you asking me?"

"Well, I haven't seen him for two weeks. Sousuke says he is busy but I know it's not the reason."

"Ahhh! Is that why you were all gloomy? Because that ass dumped you?" asked Grimmjow laughing.

"That is not true! He didn't dump me!" blurted out Leila determined. Her cheeks became red.

"Just look at you getting all worked up. But that's true. He got tired and found a new toy to play with."

"You are wrong! You don't know him!"

"Oh, and you think you do?"

"I.. I do! I think I do..."

"Was there doubt in your voice?" asked Grimmjow smirking. What was he doing? Sitting here with some woman and talking about her love life. He must've hit his head and forgot about it.

"I…I can't stop thinking about him." The words came out of her mouth surprising herself and Grimmjow.

"Why the hell are you telling me that? Go tell it to _him_!" said Grimmjow feeling uncomfortable. What did he drag himself into? He should've left a long time ago.

"But I can't go inside. Sousuke said it's too dangerous for me to go there because I can't fight," explained Leila.

"What do you mean you can't fight? Where is your zanpakuto?"

"I don't have one"

"You don't have one? Wow, you are a piece of work!"

"Yes, it's true."

"Can you at least use cero?"

"I tried a couple of times but it's really weak."

"Man, what _can_ you do?"

"I can use sonido pretty well and I can do this," said Leila and brought her hand forward releasing her reiatsu. Dozens of red roses started growing in front of Grimmjow's eyes until they bloomed. He watched with surprise written on his face than he let out a laugh.

"Yeah, that's totally useless," concluded the ex-espada.

"Oh, I know," said Leila smiling. Grimmjow looked at that smile and couldn't help but think that it suited her so much better. It almost made him feel guilty for treating her so poorly earlier but Grimmjow Jaegerjaques didn't feel guilt. Instead, he stood up.

"Anyway, I came. I gave the darn thing to you. Now I'm out. And you better fix that mess that you made," commanded the arrancar.

"Thanks, Grimmjow. I will," reassured Leila and stood up as well. Grimmjow smirked and turned to leave but then he stopped, and looked back at the girl.

"Listen, woman. You can do whatever the hell you want, it's not like I care, but I hate seeing weaklings moping around. When I really want something I just go and get it," and with that he turned around and left.

On his way back to his room Grimmjow thought about what had happened in the garden. He remembered that strange feeling when the girl touched his chest. He felt like that spot was burning and then his anger was gone and replaced with another feeling which was foreign to him. He felt calm but nagging pain. That woman was really strange but he acted even more strange around her. He was actually sitting there, talking, joking with her. But then he remembered how he grabbed her by the neck. Damn it! What was he thinking? Ulquiorra was right. He needed to control his emotions more. Aizen was going to crucify him. Man, he was so screwed.

_A/N: Hello, dear reader! I really struggled with this chapter so I hope you liked it. I added some AizenxGin moment because I felt it was appropriate and added to the story. Don't you think so? I would really appreciate your thoughts and comments. Until next time!_


	9. Chapter 9: Escape

**Chapter 9: Escape**

The next day Grimmjow woke up as usual but he decided to miss the morning meeting. It's not like he had to be there. He was no longer an espada and so before he would return that title, he decided to slack off while he could. The other reason he didn't want to go to that meeting was that he was reluctant of seeing Aizen after last night. He hoped the shinigami wouldn't find out what he did to that woman whoever she was to him, and something was telling him that Leila was not going to tell Aizen. That's what he hoped for anyway. And so in order to put out of his mind gloomy thoughts he headed to the kitchen.

One of the things Grimmjow really liked was delicious milk, and for some reason it always tasted better in the morning. He opened the fridge and pulled out a box of milk of his favorite brand. He was almost grateful to Aizen for making sure the kitchen was always stocked with various foods. It felt heavenly to feel the cold liquid coming down his throat with every gulp he took. Making a very satisfying sound he put the box away. He needed something… something sweet. He opened counter top and looked through it. The ex-espada decided to go with a chocolate biscuit stick and put it in his mouth. Oh yeah, that was just what the doctor ordered. With the most satisfying grin he turned around and saw no other than Gin standing right in front of him. Facing such an unexpected visitor he jerked back and hit his head on the still-opened counter's door.

"Damn it! Don't sneak up like that!" shouted Grimmjow rubbing the back of his head.

"I just couldn't resist" admitted Gin chuckling.

"We missed ya at the meeting. Especially Aizen. He wants to see ya," continued Gin. The blue-haired man gulped. Aizen wanted to see him.

"I heard ya had fun last night. Howz Leila-chan doin'?" asked the silver shinigami. Grimmjow passed Gin and pretended to be looking for something in order to create a safe distance between them. It didn't go unnoticed by the smiling man.

"That's none of your business," barked the ex-espada. The next second he was lying on his stomach facing the floor with his hand behind his back and Gin on top of him.

"Grimmy, I only asked a question. All ya need to do is to answer it. That's easy, isn't it?" reasoned the shinigami cheerfully, holding Grimmjow with his one hand and marker in the other.

"I'll ask ya again. How was last night?" repeated Gin while drawing a black whisker on the arrancar's cheek. Grimmjow tried to struggle to get free from the shinigami's iron grip but it was no use.

"Fine. It was fine. Gave the girl that stupid box. She took it. I left. End of story," said Grimmjow as the second whisker had been drawn.

"Is that all?" asked the grinning shinigami as he was getting ready to draw the last whisker.

"What do you want to hear, you sadist?! That she was all sad because you ditched her? Let go of me!" roared Grimmjow. Gin's hand stopped for a moment after hearing about Leila, but he finished his work by placing a big dot on the ex-espada's nose.

"There. All done. It wasn't hard, was it?"

Gin and stood up, releasing Grimmjow who had black marker all over the right side of the face. Gin laughed softly, pleased with his handiwork. But the other side of Grimmjow's face was still marker free...

"Now I have to make it even," Gin mumbled approaching the other man with his marker ready to draw. Grimmjow made the smartest move, and using his sonido flash stepped the farthest he could from the kitchen. Now he needed to find the closest restroom to get rid of that stupid marker. Damn fox face!

* * *

><p>"Did you want to see me?"<p>

Grimmjow was standing in front of Aizen who was sitting on his throne. Tousen was standing behind him.

"Yes, I did" responded Aizen as he stood up. "I wanted to thank you for the work well done," continued the shinigami coming closer. Grimmjow tensed from not knowing what to expect.

"You may visit the garden again if you wish, Grimmjow."

Aizen he put his hand on the ex-espadas's shoulder. The blue-haired man wanted to go for his zanpakuto as the self-preservation instinct kicked in, but with his willpower he restrained himself, not wanting to show any sign of weakness. He waited until both men left the room and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Alright, that went well. He was still in one piece. Satisfied, he left for training.

* * *

><p>The day flew by after the two training sessions and Grimmjow achieved a pleasant feeling of soreness in his muscles. There was no feeling quite like it, when you can feel every muscle in your body hurt when you move. It was making him feel so alive. A long nice shower made him relaxed and Grimmjow climbed on his bed, settling down to sleep. He turned on his side and closed his eyes. A few minutes later he was lying on his stomach. After an hour of turning and twisting he stood up, frustrated. He just couldn't fall asleep no matter how much he tried. He must have overdone it today with the training. His heart just couldn't slow down and his mind was wide awake. He hated that feeling.<p>

Grimmjow stood up, got dressed, grabbed his zanpakuto, and left his bedroom. Right after he left the room, Grimmjow stumbled upon Ulquiorra, who seemed to be returning to his room. They exchanged the greetings and the taller man continued on his way. He didn't really have any destination in mind. He was fine with just walking. He met a few fractions and other lower class arrancars as well as Szayel and Nniotra. Those two were on duty tonight. That mad scientist and walking spoon whose bloodlust was even greater than Grimmjow's. One thing those two had in common was a total lack of morals whatsoever.

Grimmjow had heard the rumors about a long time ago, before he even got here, that Szayel helped Nniotra to get rid of the third espada. At that time it was some woman who Nniotra hated. His final blow was strong enough to cut her down but not enough to kill. So he dumped her body outside of the castle and gained a higher rank. That's what the rumors were saying. Even though Grimmjow was not the one to listen to rumors, he wouldn't be surprised one bit if they turned out to be true. Only a coward would go so low. Nniotra and Szayel. He hated them both.

Coming out of his thoughts, Grimmjow noticed he was in Gin's part of the castle, which was right next to Aizen's. He remembered what the brown-eyed shinigami told him in the morning. Man, why not? He had nothing better to do in any case. And so he moved through the deserted halls in the direction of the garden.

When he entered, everything looked the same as the first time he came. Green trees, flowers of all kinds and colors, murmur of a little spring. The strong flourish scent made him sneeze. It was even worse than the first time. He decided to take a walk and look around. He must admit Leila had done a great job restoring this place. There was not even the slightest reminder of yesterday's autumn. When he reached the table, he saw some piece of paper on it. Curious, he came closer and took a look. It turned out to be a note. A note for Aizen.

"Dear Sousuke,

I'm sorry for disobeying your orders but I need to go inside and find Gin. I need to talk to him. Please, don't be mad.

Sincerely, Leila"

That stupid girl, who ever gave her the idea to go inside.

"…_I hate weaklings moping around" _

Ha! She won't last even five minutes out there. Especially with those two on duty.

"… _When I want something I just go and get it" _

"Crap!" hissed Grimmjow and hurried back to the palace after throwing out the note. Once inside, he fastened his steps and was on the verge of running. His heartbeat fastened, adrenalin rushed through the veins. What was going to happen to her if she stumbles upon Szayel and Nniotra? In the best case she would be dead. In the worst she'd end up one of his twisted experiments? Stop. Why did he even care? He had nothing to do with it, right? Yeah, try proving it to Aizen or Gin. Especially after today's kitchen incident. Come to think of it, Gin was really persistent in making him tell about last night. Could it be that he actually cared? Man, now was not the time! Pull it together, Grimmjow!

The blue-haired man found himself standing in a junction: the hallway to the left led to Aizen's room, the one to the right to Gin's one. Without taking too much time Grimmjow chose the lesser of two evils.

* * *

><p>Gin was very tired. He was so glad to be finally in his bed. It was truly an exhausting day: the morning meeting, training, paper work, sparring with Tousen. But all that paled in comparison to last night. He almost gave up. He almost lost control. Almost. After Grimmjow left for the garden to give Leila Aizen's present, Aizen approached him. He really didn't see that one coming. Gin always felt like Aizen did not fully trust him but to go that far. He knew Aizen was testing him, teasing him, touching him. He was so close, too close. Gin still remembered the man's soft breath on his skin. When those long fingers were tracing his neck and he felt the pulse, his blood went cold. He tightened his fist as hard as he could to avoid screaming, pushing Aizen away. It would ruin everything. He had been through so much. He could do it. He would do it no matter what! So instead he found the powers to smile and counter attack. Bang! He won that round but was it really over? He didn't know. He didn't want to know, but he must be prepared.<p>

Two weeks had passed since the night he saw Leila for the last time. He knew Aizen would be mad when they went to the world of the living. He knew he would forbid him to go the garden any longer. Of course he knew all that. That's why he did what he did. Their relationship with Leila was meaningless from the beginning. And if it was never meant to last, it was better to end it with a good memory.

_"…Gin, you are so silly…"_

He never liked seeing people sad. He wanted to remember her smile. Yes, it was selfish of him but that's how he felt.

_"I… I feel __**you**__"_

It's going to be alright. She will get over it and move on. He would continue on his way. Yes, this is how it should be. He did the right thing.

_"Gin… Gin… GIN!"_

If he did the right thing, why did it hurt so damn much!? Gin turned to his side and closed his eyes tighter. He tried to think about something nice. Something funny. Like Grimmjow's face today. He looked so cute with those whiskers on his cheek and angry expression. Gin sure was glad he happened to have that marker in his pocket. And next time he needed to make sure to take a camera with him. Gin laughed quietly and relaxed. He fell into a light slumber and didn't expect that night to turn into chaos.

* * *

><p>A very loud bang on the door woke Gin up. His first reaction was to grab his zanpakutou, which was always next to him when he slept, and sat up into fighting stance. It was quite a distance between his bed and the door so he couldn't make out the intruder's face. His eyes weren't yet adjusted to the light and all he could see was a silhouette standing in the doorframe. Still wearing his silk purple night robe, he flash stepped before the intruder and attacked him with his zanpakutou. His attack was blocked and through his clouded mind he heard a familiar voice.<p>

"O-o-oi, wake up, shinigami!" shouted Grimmjow to the half-asleep Gin while blocking his attacks. Gin was ten times scarier when he didn't smile in Grimmjow's opinion. Almost as scary as the image of Ulquiorra _smiling_.

"Ah. It's you Grimmy. Did ya come to play with me?" asked smiling Gin in a husky voice, lowering his zanpakutou.

"I have some information for you. Let's consider it my payback for one of your 'favors'" tried bargaining Grimmjow.

"Let's hear it first. I'm quite curious to hear what ya have to say that couldn't wait until the mornin'"

"Your girlfriend is on the loose. When I went to the garden she left a note saying she went inside looking for you. How about that?" finished Grimmjow observing the shinigami's reaction.

Gin stood there for a moment and when the information finally registered in his brain, he cursed and flash stepped down the hall. Silver shinigami ran at his top speed, not even caring to put on his cloak or shoes for that matter. His heart was beating madly in his chest. Grimmjow, not wanting to miss such a great show or an excuse to fight without consequences, tried to catch up to the running shinigami.

* * *

><p>Leila was walking very quietly through the halls of Las Noches. She always wondered what it was like inside. The girl only saw the outer walls of it so she had no idea how big the palace really was. She tried to keep her presence as hidden as possible because she understood the danger of being noticed. Leila didn't have a plan in mind, nor did she know where she was going. She only hoped to run into Gin somehow or to feel his reiatsu when he was somewhere close. But the more she walked, the more she realized how low her chances were to meet him in such a humongous place.<p>

Leila reached the spot where one of the walls ended, creating an opening through which the desert could be seen. Instead of the wall, a long row of tall columns were standing, as if connecting two parts of one long hallway. Before she could continue her journey, she noticed two figures moving in her direction in the distance. The girl's heart skipped a beat. She slowly turned around and started moving away from the approaching figures. The sound of footsteps was gradually becoming louder and louder, she could hear a man's voices, she could feel an unfamiliar and heavy reiatsu. Leila was starting to panic and was about to run when a male figure appeared right in front of her. The man was overly tall and skinny with an eye patch over his left eye. He was standing there, holding some sort of weapon behind his back that looked like two crescent moons connected together.

"You going somewhere, missy?" asked the tall man with a huge grin on his face. Raw fear took over Leila's body. She remembered him from many Gin's stories he had told her. Even though most of them were funny, she knew arrancars were dangerous, especially espada, and Leila could feel it with her whole body. She took a step back and stumbled upon someone. She didn't even dare to move.

"Look what you have done, Nniotra. Scared poor thing like that," said a calm voice behind Leila's back. Leila felt somebody's hands placed on her shoulders, which sent shivers running down her spine. The person's reiatsu was different from the man in front of her. There was something toxic, poisonous about it. The girl turned around, stepped back, and looked at the man. The stranger had pink hair that barely reached his shoulders; behind the glasses, there were mustard-colored eyes. It must be the scientist she heard so much about, Szayel Aporro Grandz, the eighth espada.

"Who are you? I don't think I have ever seen you before, otherwise I would remember," asked Szayel looking straight into Leila's eye.

"Oleander1" was all could the girl say, unable to break the gaze.

"Is it who you are?" asked Grandz getting closer.

"No, it's who you are," said Leila without thinking but it was too late. Old habits die hard.

"Oh, I see you've got a mouth on you. Was it a compliment or an insult I wonder?" said Szayel frowning slightly.

"Oh, cut the crap, will ya?! Come on, woman, you are coming with us," roared Nniotra who had been watching the whole scene quietly the whole time. He lifted the girl and pushed her against the wall holding her by the neck. The hit was hard enough to blow the air out of her lungs making her cough.

"Please, let me go," pleaded Leila struggling to get free but to no avail.

"Oh, you are finally out of stupor," hissed the fifth espada putting his leg between Leila's.

"That's even better. I like it when they struggle. Otherwise it's just boring, isn't it?" continued Nniotra and started moving his free hand up her thigh, caressing her smooth skin, pushing Leila even harder against the wall.

"No, please, stop," begged the girl quietly. She couldn't even scream. Only silent tears were running down her cheeks. The man's presence, his touches, his whispers, his scent made her feel suffocated. Through her watery eyes she saw Szayel standing a few steps behind Nniotra, observing them with cold bored eyes and a smirk on his face. Leila closed her eyes unable to bear watching any longer.

Gin.

She might never see him again. That would be unbearable. Why did it turn out like this? Why was she so weak? No, she couldn't give up now! She must do something, anything! Leila became desperate like a wild cornered animal. She opened her eyes and gathered all her reiatsu. White light surrounded her making Nniotra loosen his grip a bit from surprise. There was a cracking sound heard, as if something was coming from beneath the tiled floor. Szayel put a hand on his zanpakutou, getting ready for whatever was coming. But what he didn't expect was when many thorny vines appeared from the ground right under Nniotra's feet. The espada jumped away right before they appeared but he wasn't fast enough. The vines caught him mid air and he fell down on the ground. Vines were twisting around his right leg, tearing up his uniform and drawing blood.

Szayel watched with fascination. The girl was able to manipulate plants even without Resurrección like Harribel could do with water. Come to think of it the girl didn't even have zanpakutou.

"Very interesting. You will become a marvelous test subject," said Szayel pulling out his zanpakuto. At that moment Nniotra hissed and with one swing chopped of the thorns that were piercing his leg. He jumped back to his feet.

"You are going to pay for this, you bitch!" shouted Nniotra raising his zanpakutou and about to strike Leila who was sitting on the floor with her back against the wall. When she saw Nniotra was about to hit her she screamed on top of her lounges and shut her eyes tight.

Only Szayel was able to see what was going to happen next. Before Nniotra could hit, a long sword appeared from the darkness of the hallway, slicing the fifth espada's hands, blood splashed through the wounds and the tall man's weapon fell heavily on the ground, making a loud echoing metallic sound. As fast as the sword appeared, it was gone. Szayel turned his head in the direction of the source. A light figure was flashing and approaching them in a mad speed. Could that be…?

Before he could finish the thought the blurry purple male figure appeared in the air right above Nniotra and with a powerful kick knocked him to the ground. He looked like some kind of demon with madness shining in his eyes. Being too preoccupied with the scene in front of him, Szayel failed to notice another reiatsu approaching.

Grimmjow placed a strong running punch to the scientist's face, sending him flying.

"Man, I have been wanting to do that for a long time!" admitted the grinning man as he stepped closer. But he didn't get a chance to do more because Gin was already on top of Aporro. He lifted him, seizing him by the scruff of the neck. Gin looked him directly in the eyes with dead serious expression. It made Grimmjow shiver. After a second Szayel's body softened and he lost consciousness. Gin threw the Szayel on the floor. The shinagami's body relaxed, eyes closed, smile on. He made out a long sign and cracked his neck.

"Man, haven't done that in awhile," admitted Gin facing Grimmjow who looked shocked. He had never seen the smiling shinigami being so fierce. He really was a scary person. He made a mental note to not piss Gin off. He looked at Szayel then at Nniotra's unmovable bodies.

"Did you kill them?" asked Grimmjow.

"Of course not, Grimmy. They'll just sleep for awhile and hopefully forget what they just saw2" said Gin as he came to Leila.

"So how was it? Did ya enjoy yourself?" asked Gin picking up Leila from the floor.

"Are you kidding?! I wanted to punch that bastard for a long time," answered the ex-espada.

"Well, that's fantastic. We'll call it even then! I'll take Leila-chan back and you take care of those two," said smiling Gin holding Leila in his hands, bridal style.

"Oh, wait a second!" started Grimmjow.

"If it's too hard you can always call Ulqui. I'm sure he would love to help out. Oh, and please report it to Aizen. Nighty night, Grimmy," said Gin and disappeared.

"Darn you, fox faced demon! Why do I always have to do the dirty work for you?" grumbled Grimmjow and started dragging Szayel by the foot.

"What are you doing?" asked Ulquiorra who suddenly appeared in front of Grimmjow, surprising him.

"Ulquiorra, damn it! Just help me to drag these two to their rooms."

"Do explain," demanded Ulquiorra not moving from his spot.

"It's a long story," said Grimmjow tiredly. Ulquiorra just continued standing there, staring at the taller man.

"Ok, ok. You see tonight I couldn't fall asleep…"

*Oleander is one of the most poisonous of commonly grown garden plants. Beautiful, yet toxic in all its parts.

*Gin used hakufuku, a kudo binding spell that knocks out the target and confuses memory.

_A/N: Alright, one more chapter is done. I hope you liked it. I still have much more writing to do and I'd appreciate your feedback. It'll help me stay motivated. Please, stay with me._

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	10. Chapter 10: Lullaby

**Chapter 10: Lullaby**

There was a deaf silence in the room. The high ceiling was enveloped in shadows, as if the light was never meant to touch its surface, swallowed by distance and space. Only gentle moonlight entered the room through two arch windows, breaking the darkness, stretching on tiled floor and soft rug. A silk blanket slipped down to the floor, lying and waiting there patiently for its master; pillows were scattered over the bed; the door leading to the bathroom was slightly ajar, and from time to time a rare sound of dropping water broke the sacred silence.

Drip-drop. Drip-drop.

Gin appeared in his room in front of the door and slowly, carefully, as if she might break, put Leila down to the floor. He turned around after reaching his bed, put his zanpakutou, which he had been holding in his hand the whole time, on its edge. He continued to stand there without turning around and looking at the girl, who had her head bowed. It was hard to tell what the man was thinking at the moment.

"Why fairy-chan?" asked the shinigami, his body remained unmovable, "Why did you come?"

"Gin," she said in a small voice, "I wanted to see you, Gin. Please, look at me. Am I no interest to you anymore?" asked Leila in a trembling voice. She leaned against the door, covering her watery eyes with her hand. She was extremely vulnerable at the moment; many events took place in a short period of time and it was overwhelming. The next thing she knew, Gin was standing right in front of her. His face, usually unreadable, now expressed many emotions, which used to be foreign to the always smiling man. No smile, no farce, no lies, no mask. All gone. But where and why?

"Damn it!" cursed the shinigami slamming both hands with great force against the door on either side of Leila's head, looking right into her eyes, "What if you got killed! What were you thinking?!"

Gin's outburst, his uneven breathing, his slight trembling came as a shock for Leila. She had never seen the man showing such reaction, being so open, so passionate, even though he tried to hide it well. Gin tried to keep the smile on his face but the mask was already cracked. He himself couldn't believe what he was doing; that wasn't like him, not like him at all, was it? He had being wearing his mask for over a hundred years. Could it be that it was him after all? He couldn't find the answer in his cloudy mind, he felt so surreal, as if the body, his mouth, and his heart didn't belong to him anymore. All he could see through the foggy reality was Leila's face right in front of him: beautiful eyes, messy hair, full trembling lips.

"Gin, I'm sorry… I didn't mean to upset you. I just wanted to see you so badly…" said Leila, a tear came down her cheek.

"You, silly fairy."

With one smooth motion he grabbed the girl by the waist, pulling her closer, looking at her. Leila's heart stopped for a moment she looked into those deep, bottomless eyes. She felt as if they could see through her very soul, slowly devouring her. That sadness, that passion and tenderness that reflected in Gin's eyes, made her heart beat faster. Gin tilted his head to the side leaning closer and closed the distance between them, placing a passionate kiss on Leila's soft lips. The moment their lips met, a deep wave of emotions came connecting the two of them. Time stopped for them; only those sweet lips made sense; only that warmth was real. They were both lost in each other's embrace.

Gin broke the kiss and hugged Leila tightly. The girl was breathing heavily, her mind tried to catch up with what was going on. The shinigami lifted the girl once more, brought her to his bed, and put her down carefully. He ran his hand along her legs with feather like touch, not wanting to break the contact. When he reached Leila's feet, he felt some roughness and something wet. Gin brought his fingers to see what it was. It was hard to tell in the dark room but he could make up some dark liquid on his fingers. He reached for the nightlight and turned it on making sure his guess was true. When the light illuminated the room, Gin's fingers appeared to be crimson red. He quickly took Leila's feet in his hands, examining them - they were all covered in scratches: some of them were deeper than the others. Without saying a single word, the shinigami stood up and went to the bathroom.

There were many different sounds coming out: running water, bottles opening, the rustling of bags. Leila waited in confusion, trying to take a peek through the crack in the door. A few minutes later Gin came back caring a basin. Then he reached the side of bed where Leila was sitting and put the basin down. Inside there was liquid of deep red wine color. Leila gave Gin a puzzled look.

"Put your feet in here, fairy-chan," instructed Gin in his usual tone.

It seemed he got back to his usual self, which made Leila feel relieved and sad at the same time. But she brushed the bad feelings away. She wanted Gin to be comfortable around her and if he needed to act a little, it was fine with her, because she knew what was behind the act, even if only a little. The thought warmed her heart and she felt very fortunate to get to know such a special man. She smiled at Gin and obediently put her feet inside the basin. The water was warm and nice but the cuts on her feet started to itch slightly.

"Does it burn? I might have overdone it," said Gin sitting on the floor, looking up at the girl.

"No. Just tickles a little. What is it?" asked Leila while playing with water.

"It'll disinfect those wounds of yours and will help you to heal faster," said the shinigami, "I knew I should've gotten ya some shoes… I'll take care of it tomorrow."

"Oh, ok," said Leila happily.

There was going to be a _tomorrow_. That was all she needed to hear. They sat like that for half an hour: Leila, on the edge of the bed with her feet in red water, and Gin, lying on the floor leaning back on his arms. They chatted away like nothing happened, as if they were never apart, and they didn't mention about those two weeks. Gin was telling his stories as usual, about the new espada, about how he pissed of Grimmjow every time he saw him, he even promised to show her video from a surveillance camera he recorded when Grimmjow got into a fight with Luppi and Ulquiorra had to interfere.

"Yes, I heard about it from brother. It sounded funny," said Leila laughing.

"Ulquiorra told ya stories like that? I didn't think he was much of a talker," said Gin surprised.

"Oh, sure. He actually likes to talk. You just need to get him started and then he won't stop," said Leila smiling. She was having so much fun. It felt so nice just to be near Gin.

"Really? Well, what do ya know, ha?" said the shinigami, and after a pause added, "The water probably got cold, didn't it?"

"Oh yeah, I haven't even noticed"

"Ok, let's pour it out," said Gin and helped Leila to get her feet out of water. He lifted them carefully and put on the towel, which was lying next to the basin. The bleeding had stopped and the cuts looked fine. It turned out they weren't as deep as Gin thought in the beginning. Subconsciously he reached for the scratches with his fingers, tracing them. The action made Leila wince a little.

"Sorry, fairy-chan. They'll all heal by tomorrow."

"Thank you."

"Ya welcome. By the way, did ya get those when you made the vines grow, am I right?"

"Um, I guess so. I don't remember what I was doing, really."

"Hm… can ya try doin' it again?"

"Right here? But the floor…"

"Oh, don't worry bout it. Just give it a try. This might be very important."

"Ok." agreed Leila and put a hand in front of her to help concentrate. It was really hard to do. Back then it was an emergency situation but now it was different. But she had to try. Leila tried replaying in her mind what she was feeling back then. She squinted more and released the reiatsu. Behind Gin's back from the ground appeared vines and they grew until they reached the selling.

Shinigami stood up and came closer. He looked critically at the plant, examining it. Gin reached with his hand and poked one of the vines with his finger. It seemed like the plant didn't come to like it that much and suddenly moved, trying to attack the man. Gin was faster; he predicted such turn of events, avoiding sharp thorns he flash stepped away.

"It doesn't seem to like me much, fairy-chan," said Gin playfully. Leila just laughed in response. After that she relaxed and hid her reiatsu again, which made the vines freeze. Now they looked like a regular plant.

"Sorry, it's really hard to keep it up," said Leila looking at Gin. The shinigami looked deep in thought.

"Gin, what are you thinking?"

"Oh, nothin', nothin'," said Gin then he suddenly jumped on the bed bringing Leila down with him. He hugged the girl and placed a soft tender kiss on her lips.

"May I ask what caused such a change in the mood?" asked Leila smiling and looking at the man lying next to her.

"Who knows, dearest fairy," said Gin keeping the intrigue. He kept smiling. Leila didn't say anything for a long time and just continued to look at him. His features slowly relaxed, the breathing started to gradually slow down. Leila had never seen Gin sleeping. She hadn't seen a lot of things up till today. He trusted her enough to let his guard down around her and it meant the world to Leila. She carefully stood up and after picking up the blanket from the floor, covered Gin with it. He shifted a little and opened his eyes slightly.

"Shhhh, close your eyes," said Leila sitting next to Gin. She stroked his soft hair gently and started to sing a song. It was a beautiful song that sounded like a lullaby. Gin didn't know the language and even if he knew he was already falling asleep to think clearly. All he could remember before he fell asleep was the clear soothing voice of Leila. He felt like a warm gentle cloud enveloped him, making him feel like he was in a cocoon. Who knows, he might wake up the next morning as a butterfly.

* * *

><p>"…and then I punched that bastard right in the face. Man, did it feel good or what?" said Grimmjow continuing telling the story to Ulquiorra as they walked down the hall, dragging two espadas behind.<p>

"And then Gin used some magic tricks of his, and those two fell asleep as you can see."

"Oh, is that how it was?" said Ulquiorra after hearing Grimmjow's story. He looked back on Nniotra disdainfully, whom he dragged by the back of his collar. Ulquiorra's intuition didn't fail him after all. He felt that unsettling feeling before he went to bed and he decided to take a walk to clear his head. Then he came across Grimmjow and now was helping the guy to… Wait, why was he helping him again? He stopped in his tracks and let go of Nniotra which made a dull sound as his head hit the floor.

"Hey, what's up, Ulquiorra? We are almost there," said Grimmjow looking confused. What was up with Ulquiorra?

"Oh, you are right," agreed the fourth espada as he picked Nniotra up once again and they continued on their way. Grimmjow pushed the door right across from his bedroom open and they entered the fifth espada's room. The room looked surprisingly normal. It didn't seem like Nniotra made big changes to it. Of course it might be that he didn't care about things like that. Minimalistic décor in black and white color scheme left untouched. Grimmjow carelessly threw Szayel on Nniotra's bed.

"Just put Nniotra over there," ordered Grimmjow pointing at the spot next to Szayel. Ulquiorra looked suspiciously at the ex-espada.

"Don't look at me like that. I don't want to carry that creep to his room. Who knows what's in there," started Grimmjow, "Besides, it's more fun this way."

A mischievous smirk made an appearance on the ex-espada's face. Ulquiorra surprised himself by complying with Grimmjow's request by throwing Nniotra on the bed. Grimmjow smirked wider and hovered above the two unconsciously arrancars on the bed.

"What are you planning on doing?" asked Ulquiorra but remained standing on his spot. Grimmjow didn't respond but continued to move unconscious bodies on the bed. A few moments later he jumped back on the ground revealing quite an amusing scene to the fourth's eyes - on the wide bed were laying Szayel and Nniotra, hugging each other. Nniotra's hand was placed on Szayel's thigh, which was lying across the tall man's waist, and Szayel's hand rested on Nniorta's bare chest. Their foreheads were touching and if you didn't know the truth, you could be fooled into thinking those two were just a lovely couple sleeping peacefully together. Ulquiorra gave Grimmjow a warning look that the latter knew all too well.

"Come on Ulquiorra. Those bastards deserved it. It's not even close to a fair punishment. Besides, don't you wanna see the look on their faces when they wake up?" asked Grimmjow smirking.

"No. And neither do you. Let's go," commanded the espada and headed for a door. Grimmjow mumbled something about the fun spoiling pricks and soon followed Ulquiorra. After closing the door behind, Grimmjow turned to Ulquiorra who already headed to his door, and said, "Hey, Ulquiorra, do you know what technique did Gin use?"

"I have a suspicion."

"Oh, so when do you think the effects will wear out?"

"I'm not sure but I don't think it will take longer than twenty minutes."

"Oh, that's perfect," said Grimmjow and remained standing in front of the closed door. Ulquiorra looked critically at him.

"Are you planning on standing over there?"

"You bet. If I can't see them at least I want to hear it," said Grimmjow as he got comfortable leaning against the door.

"Don't forget to report it to Aizen-sama," reminded Ulquiorra as he entered his room. The espada got changed and lie on his bed under a warm, comfortable blanket. He closed his eyes and finally was able to relax. His features softened and his expression didn't seem indifferent anymore but rather content. He was going through the day in his mind and the things that had happened, and about tomorrow, trying to put in order the things he needed to do. And then he heard two loud screams and someone's hysterical laughter coming from the hall.

Seriously, Grimmjow could be so childish. On the second thought, he should have told Grimmjow not to go to Aizen's room right away to report the incident. It was better to do in the morning, because the matter was already dealt with, and to tell the truth, Aizen didn't appreciate being woken up, so to speak. Grimmjow should be smart enough to figure that out on his own… Yes, as if. Those were the last thoughts of the green-eyed espada before the fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

**Bonus Chapter: M.U.S.T. plan**

"Ne, fairy-chan, have ya ever seen Ulquiorra smile?" asked Gin sipping on his tea. Leila thought for a second and then said, "No, I haven't. Why are you asking?" She suspected that Gin had something on his cunning mind.

"Would ya like to see it?" asked Gin putting his cup down.

"Yeah! Do you have something in mind, Gin?" asked Leila enthusiastically.

"Oh, yes. I have a plan. Let's call it a "M.U.S.T." plan."

"M.U.S.T. plan?"

"Make Ulquiorra Smile Today plan," answered Gin happily.

* * *

><p>The trio of Gin, Leila, and Grimmjow were sitting on a blanket under a sakura tree.<p>

"Ne, Grimmy, have ya ever seen Ulquiorra smile?" started Gin.

"No," answered Grimmjow after thinking for a second.

"Why are you asking?" he added suspiciously.

"Would ya like to see it?" continued the shinigami.

"Is this some kind of trick?"

"Yes, but it's more like a prank. So are you in with us?" asked the lavender-haired man.

"Hm, what's the plan?" asked Grimmjow.

"That's the spirit! Here is what we are going to do," said Gin and leaned in whispering something into the other man's ear. Grimmjow paled, and then turned red, followed by purple.

"Are you out of your mind! There is no way I'm doing it!" shouted the espada.

"Come on! I know you want to," tried convincing Gin.

"Not a chance!"

"Don't be like that, Grimmy. Can you imagine the look on Ulquiorra's face?"

Grimmjow thought for a second.

"Yeah! And that will be the last thing I see before he slashes my throat!"

"It's a thing to die for," joked Gin. Grimmjow just stared at him.

"I'm just kidding. You'll be fine. I'll be there."

"That's doesn't sound too comforting..."

"Remember, you own me."

"Screw you, damn shinigami!"

"Great! I knew we would come to an understanding. Now let's all go to my room to practice. Ya have to get it perfect."

* * *

><p>Behind Gin's door.<p>

"Stay back, shinigami, I'm warning you."

"Relax Grimmy, I'll be gentle."

"No, don't touch me, you freak."

"My, Grimmy, that's just mean. Just close your eyes. You are going to like it."

"No… at least let that woman do it. I don't trust you!"

There was a muffled sound of a body hitting the floor.

"Come on, don't struggle. I always wanted to do it. Let me work my magic on you."

"That's not magic, that's f***ing mascara!"

* * *

><p>Ulquiorra was heading to his room from his mission. It was a long day and all he wanted was to take a nice hot bath and go to sleep. But he was stopped by Nniotra.<p>

"Hey Ulquiorra. Aizen wants to see you," said the fifth espada matter-of-factly.

"I see. Are you coming from him?"

"Nah, I ran into Gin. He told me to find you," answered Nniotra.

"Well, thank you."

Ulquiorra turned around. He reached the throne room and pushed the door open. The room was dark but he could see Aizen's figure sitting on the throne in his usual position leaning his head on his hand. He couldn't see his face because it was hidden in the shadow. Gin and Tousen stood right behind Aizen. Something was different but he couldn't quite put his finger on it so he just ignored it. Ulquiorra bowed his head in respect.

"You wanted to see me, Aizen-sama?"

"Yes, welcome back, Ulquiorra" said the voice and the man shifted position revealing his face. Ulquiorra lifted his head and froze. In front of him sat Grimmjow wearing Aizen's clothing; his hair was an identical copy of Aizen's hairstyle; he sat comfortably on a throne with a huge grin on his face. But that was not what made Ulquiorra's eyebrow twitch and the corner of his lip go up. The reason for that was that Grimmjow was wearing the most ridiculous, outrageous make-up he had ever seen: hot pink glossy lipstick, smoky eyes with purple eye-shadow, red cheeks, and add to that the whole make-up looked like a five year old, colorblind kid did it using his feet.

"He smiled!" shouted Gin clapping happily. Ulquiorra was brought back from his thoughts and reached for his zanpakuto. That movement didn't promise any good, especially for poor Grimmjow who stiffened.

"Fairy-chan!" called Gin looking at Leila.

"Big Brother!" screamed the girl as she hugged Ulquiorra by his neck, stopping the dangerous situation. But the relieved feeling wasn't meant to last. From the entrance a cold voice sounded.

"Gin."

Everyone turned in the direction of the voice and paled.

"Oh, hi there, Aizen," said Gin. It was all he could master with an obviously forced smile. It'll take much more than sweet talk to get out of the situation this time.

_A/N: Thank you for your comments and I hope you liked this new chapter and bonus chapter. See you next time! _


	11. Chapter 11: New arrangements

_A/N: My apologies for taking so long to update this time but I will do better from now on. I hope you had a great V day and I have a present for you. I finished my drawing of Gin and Leila so you can see the way I picture her in my mind when I write. I hope you will like her too. Just go to __nimfah . deviantart # / d4olb5q (just delete the spaces in the link) OR you can just go to deviantart website and browse for Nimfah and one of the paintings that is called "Desert Rose" will be the one you are looking for. Have fun reading new chapter!_

Chapter 11: New arrangements

The morning smelled like flowers. Well, it did smell like flowers for Gin. He didn't hate mornings but the shinigami wasn't a morning person either. Gin lazily creaked one of his eyes open and tried to focus his vision but it was all blurry at first. He closed his eye and after a few slow breaths he repeated the action, this time with both eyes. In front of him a female figure was lying down. Who was it? Then the events of previous night started slowly coming back to the not yet fully awakened man.

Leila.

Leila was sleeping right in front of him. Gin gave out a genuine smile and started stretching when he noticed something unusual behind the girl's back. Curious, he lifted his body and looked around: the whole room was filled with various flowers. Gin chuckled softly. It seemed that the girl didn't waste time while he was sleeping. He slid his feet down feeling his favorite carpet. He stretched his feet once again, repeating his morning routine. He quietly got ready and left the room.

Gin had many things to do that morning: talk to Aizen about last night's encounter, talk to him about Leila and her abilities, find some shoes and new clothes for her, delete the data off the surveillance cameras. Last night was an emergency situation and the shinigami got carried away with overflowing emotions, but he didn't want to leave such discrediting evidence against himself. That was actually on top of his list. Gin was putting in order his 'to do list' in his mind when he reached the surveillance room. The door was open and the shinigami marched right in.

In front of many computer screens sat Tousen with his arms crossed. Gin never understood why the blind man was assigned to watch the monitors. He couldn't even see what was going on them, could he? Well, some questions were better left unanswered. With those thoughts he tiptoed to the main computer control, not wanting to wake Kaname up if he was asleep as Gin suspected. After that he quickly searched for surveillance camera's data, looking at Tousen from time to time. He couldn't tell if the man was truly asleep or not: the light from the screens reflected on the blind man's goggles, making it impossible to see his eyes. It made the silver shinigami feel unsettled, as if someone was constantly watching him, so he tried to finish his task as fast as he could. But it turned out to be harder than he thought. Not because he didn't know how to do it, but because he saw for the first time the events of last night from the very beginning.

In reality, Gin wasn't a bad natured person. Yes, he did enjoy pranks very much; he liked mentally toying with people's minds and their personal belongings from time to time. But it didn't bring him any joy to inflict physical pain, especially someone weaker. Sure, he couldn't hide the thrill of a nice battle, he could be fierce and merciless to his opponents, but what those scum were going to do to Leila was too low. It brought back memories of the past. A new wave of anger washed over him but was soon suppressed. Smiling, Gin took out his USB with the saved video on it, and left the room. You could never have too much discrediting evidence, right?

* * *

><p>Gin stood in front of the door and was ready to knock, when no other than Aizen himself opened the door, making Gin's hand stop mid air. The man smiled at him softly.<p>

"Good morning, Gin," said Sousuke looking straight at Gin who was smiling back. The silver shinigami was about to make one of his comments about the bright red silk robe Aizen was wearing, when he noticed something unusual behind the taller man's back. Curious, he leaned to the left to take a better look, but the picture in front of him made him gasp. There, on the huge bed with tall bed posts was laying Grimmjow half naked and, as it seemed, was staring at the ceiling. Grimmjow's clothes, or the clothes that remained on him, were ripped to shreds, as if he was in a cage with a lion, a very mad lion, but somehow managed to survive. Gin's face lit up, as the face of a kid whose parent gave him the most delicious ice-cream cone. The shinigami thought he would explode if he didn't say anything right that second. But when he was about to open his mouth and say the most caustic remark he could come up with, Aizen stopped him.

"Before you say anything, would you like to come in? I believe we have things we need to discuss".

Gin looked like a kid, whose parent just took his favorite ice-cream from his hands and ate it himself! But the smiling shinigami was determined. He couldn't allow himself to be stopped by Aizen that easily.

"Did you sleep well?" asked Gin as if nothing happened and continued following Aizen to the chairs than stood on the right side of the bed in front of a tall and narrow window. It seemed like the remark didn't affect the taller man as he calmly sat down. Gin couldn't help but want to get some reaction out of the brown eyed man and so he continued.

"Oh, I apologize, Aizen-sama, how rude of me to ask those kinds of questions", he said, and after looking in the direction of unmovable body of Grimmjow continued, "considering the circumstances…"

"Oh, save it, Gin. I already have headache and I don't need you to make it worse," said Aizen rubbing his temples. "Why did you send him here while I was sleeping. I think you should know better than this by now."

And Gin knew. In the past he had to wake Aizen up a number of times on different occasions and only after a couple of near death experiences he had managed to get into the way of doing the said act without any losses on his part. Usually, in case of an emergency there were three best candidates to go into Aizen's chamber: Tousen, Ulquiorra and Gin. Other than those three no one was willing to disturb the sleeping king. It was an unspoken rule. But Grimmjow, as a man who despised gossip and rules in general, had no idea why it was forbidden to do. Unfortunately for him, he learned it the hard way.

"Oh, it must have slipped my mind," said Gin in a fake apologetic voice. But he couldn't help but chuckle softly when he saw how Aizen's stern look mixed with pain.

"Gin," started Aizen but was interrupted by the other man.

"I'm sorry, I must have forgotten at the moment. The situation made us act quickly and I wasn't thinking about trivial things like that," finished Gin looking genuinely sincere.

"Trivial things?...In any case do report the situation," ordered Aizen getting more comfortable in his chair. Gin took it as a good sign and relaxed his posture slightly as well.

"Didn't Grimmy tell ya all about it? Or did ya knock him off before he could open his mouth?" Aizen was quiet for a moment and then he said looking at the expecting face of the smiling man.

"I would like to hear your perspective."

"Well, there is not much to tell. Grimmy came to my room telling me that the girl was missing. Then we headed looking for Leila. After that I, as a knight in a shining armor, beat up the bad guys and saved the princess. But I'm assuming ya already know this much," said Gin crossing his legs. Aizen leaned on his right hand lightly.

"Yes, I know that much. I want you to tell me what I don't know yet. Isn't it the reason you came here? For example, tell me more about Leila's newly awakened powers. That promises to be a very interesting topic."

"Interesting indeed," Gin smiled with the smile of a Cheshire cat. He wasn't sure what the source of the information was but at that point it wasn't so important. The important thing was what to do with it.

"Ya, it looks like our little fairy isn't as useless as you thought. She showed me some really nice tricks and my guess is that if she keeps developing her skills she could become an extremely powerful arrancar. She might even suppress all our espada members," finished the silver shinigami.

"Oh, even so? Are you sure your judgment is purely objective in this matter?" asked Aizen with a doubt.

"Well, fair enough. But let me tell ya this. You know how Harribel can create and manipulate water in her Resurrección state? So Leila can manipulate plants without _any_ Resurrección. She doesn't even have zanpakuto for that matter. True, that we already knew that she can grow plants, but have one of those plants ever tried to attack you? Can ya imagine what she could do… "

"…if she had a zunpakuto. I understand where you are going with this and I need time to think about it," said Aizen looking deep in thought.

"Great. Then I'll be on by way. I need to find some new clothes and shoes for the fairy to train in," said Gin standing up.

"Aren't you getting a little bit ahead of yourself?" asked Aizen but he remained seated.

"Nah, she needs new clothes and shoes anyway," said Gin. He came to the bed and took a closer look at Grimmjow who was still lying on the same spot. Poor guy looked very pale with dull open eyes which weren't looking at anything in particular. Many cuts on the torso and a missing arm finished the picture of "Poor little Grimmy" and "The sadist Aizen."

"I think you overdid Kyouka Suigetsu this time. Ne, Captain?" asked Gin poking Grimmjow's cheek.

"He will live."

"Ne-e, that is so mean," said Gin and kept harassing the blue haired man's cheek. One man could take that much poking. Grimmjow's eyes focused and after blinking a few times, he slowly came to his senses.

"Oh, look, the sleeping beauty is awake and I didn't even get to the kiss part yet," joked Gin. Grimmjow was very dizzy and disoriented so he didn't fully understand what was going on.

"What…kiss…please, no, Aizen-sama. No more," mumbled the ex-espada. Gin burst out laughing which made Grimmjow return to his senses completely. He quickly sat up but it turned out to be not the best of his ideas. His head hurt mercifully and Gin's loud laughter hit him as hundreds of hammers. He brought both hands to his head in hope of lessening the throbbing pain.

"Will you shut up!" roared Grimmjow in a husky voice. Ulquiorra chose that moment to come into the room.

"Here is your aspirin, Aizen-sama," said the forth espada with a tray in his hands. Three pairs of eyes looked in his direction and after a second of silence Gin started laughing with a new force. This time Grimmjow started trying to kick the shinigami with his foot but failed because he wasn't able to stand yet. After watching all the madness for a moment, Ulquiorra moved in the direction of Aizen who beckoned him with a hand sign. The raven haired man put the glass of water and medicine on the table in front of his master.

"Thank you, Ulquiorra."

"Is there anything else I can do for you?" asked Ulquiorra well mannered.

"No, you have done plenty already. You can take a couple of hours to catch up on your sleep if you like."

"Thank you for your generous offer but I will be fine," said Ulquiorra. It flattered him that Aizen was concerned about him but he could never accept such an offer. For him it was the same as to admit a weakness. He couldn't allow it. They both knew that.

Meantime, Grimmjow was already chasing after Gin in circles around the room.

"Look, Captain, our patient is feeling much better. Aren't I a genius?" shouted Gin dodging from the mad arrancar who started hand-to-hand combat.

"Actually Ulquiorra, if it is not too much trouble, could you escort those two out of my chamber," said Aizen without gracing Gin with a glance.

"Yes, Aizen-sama," said the fourth and pulled out his weapon.

"Ok, ok, we are leaving," said Gin, dragging Grimmjow after him.

"See you at the meeting, Gin, Grimmjow," said Aizen looking at the men.

"Yeah, feel better, Captain."

"What was that all about?" shouted Grimmjow angrily.

"It's all about knowing when to stop, Grimmy. How many times did I tell you to control yourself?"

"You…" started Grimmjow but was interrupted by Gin.

"Come down. Look what I've got for ya. It should make up a bit far last night," said Gin and pulled out a small photo from his sleeve like some sort of magician. Grimmjow took the picture in his hands and his face lit up instantly as if he just received a present from Santa. On the picture was Grimmjow punching Szayel in the jaw.

"I know the quality isn't the best because it was taken by a surveillance camera but I think it will do."

"Are you kidding! That's awesome!" exclaimed the blue haired man.

"I'm glad to see ya so enthusiastic. Now shall we go and get you some new clothes before anyone sees you, or do you prefer walking half naked?" asked the shinigami.

"Yeah. Damn, you are right," said Grimmjow remembering where he was.

"Ok then. I was going to the storage room anyway so you can accompany me," suggested the shinigami and the duo started walking down the long dim-lit hall of the palace.

"By the way, what exactly did you see under Kyouka Suigetsu?"

Grimmjow's face turned a shade of green. And only the faint echoing sound of the smiling shinigami's chuckle was heard as the two figures turned the corner and disappeared from the view.

* * *

><p>"Rise and shine, dear fairy, rise and shine!" exclaimed Gin opening the door of his room and coming in. The shinigami had his hands full with the things he collected during the day. It was already after 5 o'clock but Leila was still sleeping on his bed. Slowly, awoken by the loud entrance, the girl opened her eyes and sat up.<p>

"Good morning," whispered Leila.

"Good morning, dear fairy. Did you sleep well?" asked Gin and put the box that he had been holding on the bed in front of her.

"Yes, I did. Thank you..What is this?" asked the girl pointing at the box filled with various items.

"Oh, this is for you," said Gin and started pulling things out, item by item from the box.

"Here is your new schedule, your new uniform for training, I chose it especially for you, new shoes, some hair stuff, a few books for you to read, and… let's see, oh yeah, and strawberry ice-cream, your favorite, or the only one you had, so it's the same thing," finished Gin and handed the ice-cream to the confused girl. Leila took it automatically but her brain couldn't catch up with what was going on. Unfortunately for her, the shinigami didn't give her a chance to do so.

"Oh, I see they are all healed," said Gin examining Leila's feet. Then he went for the box and after a few moments of searching, pulled out two pair of over the knee socks: black and white.

"Which one would ya prefer?" asked Gin holding the items in his hands. Leila subconsciously reached for the white pair and grabbed it. It seemed like she made the right choice because Gin smiled brighter. He reached for her head and messed up her hair even more than they had been after waking up.

"Nice choice, fairy-chan. I never had a doubt!" said Gin laughing. The look on Leila's face was too adorable: she sat there sleepy, with messy hair, confused with a pair of socks in her hand.

"Come on. Put those on and we'll see if the shoes that I brought are the right size," hurried Gin with white sandals in his hand, waiting for Leila to finish.

"Gin, can you explain what are you up to? What training were you talking about?" said the girl finishing pulling up the second sock.

"Your training. It's all on the schedule right there," said the man and put on a sandal on Leila's feet.

"Perfect!" sang Gin happily, "Now, can you stand up and tell me it you feel comfortable". Leila complied and stood up. She was a little bit uncomfortable not being used to wearing shoes, so she didn't know the difference. Despite that discomfort she tried not to show it too much.

"Yeah, I guess" answered the girl testing her new attire.

"You'll get used to it. I also got you some boots for more intense spar training, and two outfits. You can choose which one you want to wear. I would go with shorts if I were you but you decide. Now, go to the bathroom and change. You have your first training coming up. You don't want to make your instructor wait, do ya?"

"My instructor? Just wait a second. Could you clearly tell me what's going on? I'm really confused right now," begged Leila feeling completely lost.

"Don't worry. It's just Sousuke decided that you need to develop your powers and I agree with him," said Gin standing up, "You will have two trainings a day: physical strength which will include a lot of exercises as well as sparring in the end, and mental training where you will learn to control your powers better. In addition to that there are some books you will have to read. They are about different types of plants and their characteristics. That's about it. Now choose the outfit and go change," ordered Gin.

Leila listened carefully and for the most part understood the situation. Now, before her stood a choice, no less important for a girl, of which to wear: skirt or shorts. After a short mental battle Leila crabbed the chosen outfit and closed the door of Gin's bathroom behind.


	12. Chapter 12: Baptism Of Fire

Chapter 12: Baptism Of Fire.

The room was enormous: walls upholstered in white velvet gave a first impression of being a mad house residence. However, that impression, even though not being too far from the truth, was dispelled if you gave it a second look: the room was filled with various training items, exercise machines, running tracks, obstacle courses and other training related equipment that wouldn't let you mistake this place for anything other than a training room. Even more so, it was Aizen's private training room in which only he himself and few people of his closest circle were allowed to enter. But that day one person was there who wasn't one of Aizen's clan. He wasn't there by his free will either. He had a special mission; a very responsible task to perform.

After some looking around the room, which took him some time taking in consideration the size of it, he sat down on one of the railings in front of the entrance and started kicking the dirt with his knew white combat boots. He was dressed in a pair of military style pants but instead of a classical dark green shade the camouflage was done in light colors using white, beige, and light blue. The image was completed by a white sleeveless shirt with a whistle around the neck, which looked perfect on the well toned muscular body of the blue-eyed man.

"Damn you, shinigami. They think I have nothing else to do? Those bastards! Damn you!"

He should have known there would be the trick when Gin told him about a special mission Aizen had for him, in addition to that those stupid clothes he had to wear. He actually didn't mind the outfit that much. To be completely honest, he slightly liked the way he looked in it but he wouldn't admit it. More importantly, he wasn't so fond of waiting. For a third time in the last minute he took a look at his commander watch and shifted his position. At that moment the white doors opened and Gin and Leila entered the grounds.

Gin as always had a huge grin on his face hiding his hands in long sleeves. Leila was a few steps behind him. It was obvious that she felt nervous by the unsure steps she was taking. But what surprised Grimmjow is that she looked different than usual. Grimmjow even needed to take at second look at the girl to make sure it was Leila.

Yes, Leila indeed.

Instead of her white dress she was wearing a white one-piece suit with shorts over her mid thigh; its low neck was not deep but very wide, revealing collar bones; right under her chest there was black wide lace that had been tied in back into a bow. The upper part of the suit was tight-fitting when the shorts were loose and only fit at the edge. She was still wearing the white over-the-knee socks that she put on in Gin's room. But instead of the sandals she had high and silver leather boots with black laces that were similar in design to the ones Grimmjow himself was wearing. On her hands she had white leather fingerless motorcycle gloves. The hair were lifted up on a side and hidden inside her hollow mask leaving a few curls out. Grimmjow had to admit that the outfit suited her very well. But unfortunately for her, looks wouldn't make the training any easier.

"Hi there, Grimmy!" greeted Gin happily.

"You are late!" said Grimmjow leaving pleasantries.

"Oh! You missed me already," teased Gin and after seeing the desired reaction on Grimmjow's face, happily continued, "Here, I brought you your student. Please, take good care of her". The shinigami pushed Leila on her back slightly and she took a few steps forward.

"Good evening, Grimmjow," Leila greeted. She was a little embarrassed by the sound of her own voice echoing in the room. Grimmjow looked her in the eyes - uncertainty was clearly reading in them. Without saying anything back to the girl, Grimmjow turned back to Gin and said, "I can see that. Now get out!" ordered Grimmjow.

"I see our kitty cat is in a bad mood tonight," said Gin and turned to Leila.

"I'll pick ya up in two hours, fairy-chan. Listen to Grimmy-sensei," the Shinigami instructed and placed a quick kiss on Leila's lips.

"Oh, give me a break," said Grimmjow rolling his eyes.

"Don't be jealous, Grimmy," said Gin and after waiving final goodbye closed the door. A few moments later, after making sure the shinigami was gone, Grimmjow turned his head to the girl standing in front of him.

"Ok, now listen to me, woman. I don't know why Aizen decided to do this and I don't really care. If I had a choice, I wouldn't be here. But as long as I'm here, you do what I say without any complaints. If you want to stop being the helpless little chipmunk you are, you have to work your ass off!", said Grimmjow starting to walk from side to side, "Every muscle in your body is going to hurt but I want you to suck it up and keep moving. Is that clear?"

"Yes!" said Leila. She was in a completely new environment and situation for her. She had her doubts and uncertainties about the training but she was willing to try it.

"What was that?" asked Grimmjow pretending not too hear.

"Yes, sir!" shouted Leila louder which turned out to be even louder because of the acoustics of the room.

"That's better! You will scream during training so get used to hearing your own voice. Now, let me explain what we are going to do. The first forty minutes you are going to work on you durability meaning you will run jump and do all kinds of exercises to improve your stamina. Then we have twenty minutes of shooting practice. After that goes 30 minutes of weight lifting exercises. Then fifteen minutes of martial arts technique. And we will finish it up with fifteen minutes of sparing even though I think we won't need that much time because you won't last a minute. But unfortunately, I wasn't the one making the schedule."

"Oh, and one last thing. This place was built to exterminate_ any_ kidou. I mean no spells, no sonido, no cero. Nothing! So when you are up running on those pillars out there", said Grimmjow pointing at the tall pillars that went almost all the way up to the ceiling, "you better watch your step because that is one of a hell way to fall."

Leila looked at the one hundred twenty feet high rising white columns which were to her left, and were standing in the middle of what looked like an obstacle course. She gulped because Grimmjow was right. It was an awful long way to fall. At the bottom she noticed there were some safety nets to soften the fall but it was a small comfort. She needed to be very careful when she was out there.

"Now get moving!" said Grimmjow loudly pointing at the beginning of an obstacle course. Leila started running. Even after the first step she took she understood how hard it was going to be. The first few obstacles weren't so difficult so Leila flew trough them. Much harder for her were the ones where she needed to use more physical strength than speed and balance. For example, it was hard for her to get over the wall because pull ups weren't something she could do effortlessly. But after a few tries and Grimmjow's shouting she moved on to the next obstacles.

Grimmjow observed the girl, praying for the whole thing to be over as soon as possible. He liked the action, the movement of just standing there with a look of a Cerberus was making him bored out of his mind. He looked up at the ceiling where many lights were installed. Once again he was amazed my Aizen's ego. If Gin was telling the truth and no kidou was working in that place then just how much self-confidence in his abilities must he have had to build something like this? In that room everyone became almost as helpless as humans if that was true. Curious, Grimmjow extended his hand to release a cero when a loud scream was heard. He turned his head in the direction of the voice and saw Leila falling from one of the tall white columns.

"Shit," he cursed and on pure instinct ran toward Leila. He tried using sonido but it didn't work. He cursed again and ran faster. When he reached the girl she was already laying on the safety net. He quickly scanned her for injuries but it looked like she was fine. Well besides the fact that she was as white as chalk and didn't blink. Fear completely paralyzed her.

"How long are you planning on lying there, huh?" asked Grimmjow loudly but received no response. He asked again but still no answer. Then he did the first thing that came to his mind and slapped Leila's cheek. It seemed to work as the girl was brought back from her trance. She quickly sat up pressing a hand against the burning cheek.

"Now stand up and get that ass moving!" commanded Grimmjow and Leila had no other choice than comply. After awhile doing the course over again she fell a few times but quickly stood up and continued moving. From there time started going faster for the both of them and the 20 minutes flew by. By the end Leila was out of breath and could hardly feel her legs but there was no time to waste. They moved to the shooting area and Grimmjow was showing Leila how to hold a gun. At first Leila was surprised how heavy it was. Her delicate hands were holding very firmly yet elegantly the handle. Shooting turned out to be her favorite part so far. She was natural at it. Too bad that part was over and they moved to the weight lifting. Grimmjow loved that part because he had something to occupy himself with while watching Leila doing her assigned exercises. After that he showed her a couple of self-defense techniques as well as offensive moves; just the basic things. In his personal opinion Leila just wasn't cut for that hand to hand battle style. She was more of a spell user but nobody asked him.

"Now it's sparring time. Try hitting me if you can," taunted the ex-espada with a smug expression. Leila looked worn out but was holding herself the best she could. She gathered all the strength she had left in her body and with a loud scream, surprising Grimmjow started attacking him. But no matter how much she tried, she could never place a single hit on her opponent. With every failed attempt she grew more and more aggravated. The fire started burning in her eyes as she became more desperate in her attempts. Grimmjow didn't fail to notice that. He was waiting for her to wake up.

"Enough attempts, just hit," said the man blocking the attacks. Leila stopped for a second then attacked with a double force and speed. After a fake hook that Grimmjow blocked with his only hand, she kicked his side with her foot. The action was so fast that the man couldn't block it that time.

"Well, looks like you aren't good for nothing after all," said Grimmjow grinning, "Now defend yourself, women."

Grimmjow went to attacking Leila. Sadly, it didn't last long. After five seconds Leila was sent flying. She hit the wall and fell onto the ground. She couldn't breathe, couldn't move, couldn't think. An overwhelming pain blocked all her senses; tears appeared in her eyes. Pain. So much pain. Leila brought her knees closer to her head, trying to ease the pain. She heard someone's voice calling her but couldn't make up who it was.

"Not bad for the first time," said Grimmjow looking down at Leila. He put a bottle of water next to her and left. On the way out he met Gin who came to pick up the girl. Surprisingly, the smiling man didn't say a word just bowed his head as if saying 'hello'. Not paying too much mind to the shinigami, Grimmjow left the training room and closed the door behind. Gin came up to Leila and sat beside her.

"Come on, fairy, get up," said Gin softly lifting the girl up by the shoulders. He put her against the wall.

"Here, drink this. I promise ya'll feel much better," said Gin handing Leila the bottle that Grimmjow left for her. She took the bottle and drank half of it in one gulp. Water was streaming down her lips and chin. Her messed-up hair and the rising of her chest made Leila too tempting for the shinigami to resist. He snaked his right hand behind her back and pulled closer. Then he captured her lips surprising the girl. She tensed for a second but then her body went limp and she circled her arms around Gin, letting him do whatever he wanted with her lips. At the time of her first fall, for the first time she seriously thought she was going to die. She was falling and was not able to do anything about it. Her powers were useless. She was so useless. But then she felt. She felt pain. But it meant she was still alive. Such simple yet precious understanding came to her as priceless knowledge.

"Gin," whispered Leila into the man's ear. But that simple word made a great impact on the owner of the name. He looked into Leila's deep cherry-colored eyes. No words were needed. The silver shinigami kissed Leila more passionately bringing her body closer. His hand slid down to her exposed thigh and started caressing her smooth velvet skin. As his hand went up it met an obstacle. This fact wasn't well taken by the man in his current condition so he let out an annoyed groan. Then he leaned back a little and chuckled.

"What is it, Gin?" asked the puzzled girl. She really couldn't understand what could possible cause the action at a moment like this.

"I told ya you should've gone with the shorts," said Gin smiling at Leila.

"Gin, it's ok. Today I learned how to fall," said Leila earnestly. Gin's smile faltered slightly understanding the second meaning behind the sentence.

"I know, fairy. I know. It's just that I don't want to have any audience if you don't mind. I just came from the surveillance room and was watching your whole training session which you did great by the way. Happy Baptism of Fire. Even though it wasn't the real battle yet. But I think we should probably change the setting a little bit, shouldn't we?" asked Gin standing up and reached out his hand. Leila, who was all red from embarrassment, took his hand silently without finding the need to respond to the question they both knew the answer to. Both of them left the room and the light went off drowning it in the darkness.

_A/N: hello everyone. Thank you for sticking around so far. I greatly appreciate it!  
><em>


	13. Chapter 13: A Test of Strength

Chapter 13: A Test of Strength

Aizen, Ulquiorra, and Grimmjow were sitting together around the white table in the garden, facing the endless desert. Each one of them had a regular cup of tea set up, but neither had touched it yet. Ulquiorra preferred to be quiet and was staring in the distance, which wasn't all that surprising; Aizen was studying his hands and didn't say a word, probably just to make Grimmjow even more irritated. The blue haired man was tapping on his knee, trying to let some of the tension he felt out. He had no idea why in the world did Aizen order him to come. But, probably, it was no good news for him. Nothing coming from Aizen did Grimmjow any good. Well, that was not a complete truth. Especially today.

"Will you stop it, trash?" Ulquiorra's indifferent voice brought sexta back from his troubled thoughts.

"What's your problem, daisy?" Grimmjow barked back. He was secretly glad about their little skirmish. Everything was better than silence.

"What did you call me?" Ulquiorra's eyes were piercing through Grimmjow, but sexta wasn't intimidated at all. He gladly took the challenge.

"D-a-i-s-y," mocked Grimmjow but before the two could start a serious fight, Aizen decided to step in.

"That's enough, Grimmjow."

"What? What did I do? He is the one who started it!"

Aizen paid no mind to his sexta's rumbling and took a cup of tea from the table.

"Show some respect, Grimmjow. Didn't I give you your position back?"

The words made Grimmjow go quiet. On an instinct, he reached for his left arm. He thought he would never be able to feel it again but there it was. It felt amazing beyond belief to slide the blade through that little prick Luppi. He still got shivers just from remembering that moment, the moment he had been waiting for too long. He got back his status as sexta espada, killed Luppi, and, if he could only get out of the garden, the day would be perfect.

"I don't hear the answer," pressed Aizen, looking sideways at his unruly subordinate.

"Yes, Aizen," responded Grimmjow through gritted teeth, but the answer seemed to satisfy the master.

Then, out of nowhere, Leila appeared wearing her usual training uniform. Grimmjow was already used to seeing his student in that attire. He had been training her for the last month, and in his opinion she was making quite a progress. He didn't believe in the success of the whole scheme at first, but in time, slowly but surely Leila started to show great improvements. Some part of him was a little bit proud of her, of what they managed to accomplish in such a short period of time.

"You called me, Sousuke?"

"Yes, dear. Today is your graduation. Let's see how much you have learned."

Grimmjow rubbed his hands and said, "Ha! Let's fight, woman. Now, when I have my arm back, I'll beat you to a pulp in no time!"

"Hold it, Grimmjow," Aizen stopped, gesturing his bloodthirsty espada to sit down, "You are not fighting anyone."

"What?!" sexta revolted, "Then what the hell am I doing here?"

Aizen sipped on his tea and said, as if nothing had happened, "You are here just to observe."

"To observe?"

"Yes. To observe. Don't you want to see how much your student has progressed in the last month? This is my appreciation for the work you've done."

"Oh yeah? And _who _is going to fight her?"

"Me," the whisper came right to Grimmjow's ear making him jump in surprise. Then he turned around and so no other than Gin himself, grinning more than usual.

"Sorry for the wait, captain."

"It's alright, Gin. Let us begin. You may use all your powers as you see fit. Don't hold back. Leila, Gin, do your best."

The opponents took their positions, standing on the safe distance from the trio around the table. That night was especially windy, the dull light of the moon was illuminating the desert, as the lovers were watching each other intently, waiting for the other to make the first move. Gin was the first one to act. Without a moment of hesitation, he unleashed his zanpakutou and rushed forward. By the demonic sparkle in her lover's eyes, Leila understood that he was more than serious. Only thanks to her training she was able to dodge the first attack. But Gin didn't give her much time to gather her thoughts and attacked again and again. It was extremely difficult for Leila to avoid Gin's precise blows without having a zanpakutou, but she did what she could, using her flexibility and speed. But, that was not enough. Her clothing started to turn into shreds; few cuts appeared on the arms and legs, letting out the crimson blood.

Using sonido, Leila stepped on the safe spot and fired Cero aiming at Gin. She had no other choice at the moment. The bright orange beam fired, disappearing a few seconds later. Then, Gin appeared about twenty feet away from the girl. Both of them were trying to catch their breaths after a heated battle. Leila wiped away the sweat from the forehead and took a fighting stance, preparing for the continuation of the sparring.

"Very nice, fairy-chan," complimented Gin, shaking the sand off his clothing. Then, he noted that the corner of his robe was burned. "Ha-a-a, you ruined my uniform, fairy. What a naughty girl you are. I'll have to punish you for doing that."

"Hadou No. 1. Shou!"

In an instant, Leila was knocked down and hit the ground hard, feeling extreme pain in her right shoulder. The sand filled her mouth making her sit up and cough, holding her throat. But Gin was already on the move. He was in the middle of a jump, raising his sword high above the head, ready to place the final blow. But at the last moment Leila was able to react. She used her powers making a wall of trees appear from the ground, blocking Gin's attack. The shinigami pushed away from the trees' trunks and jumped to the side.

"I didn't know she could do that," said Grimmjow, looking at the fighting couple. More and more trees appeared from the ground, protecting, defending, and attacking. But Gin did not yield to the pressure, and flash stepped away from dangerous sharp branches, managing a counterattack.

"That is because you only trained her physical abilities, Grimmjow. Ulquiorra helped he develop her spiritual powers."

"Hmm." Grimmjow made himself as comfortable as the metal chair would allow him, and continued watching the show. The excitement from observing a great fight was getting to him. He wanted to join in. He wanted to fight. Badly.

"Wanna bet who wins?" blurred out the sexta. Aizen and Ulquiorra slowly turned to look at the blue haired espada.

"Excuse me?" Aizen asked raising an eyebrow elegantly; the fourth espada had his usual bored expression.

"Well, I mean, we don't have to bet on anything. Just for fun," Grimmjow tried to justify but his leader continued the staring contest.

Suddenly, surprising everyone, Ulquiorra gave out, "Gin," saving his misfortunate comrade. Aizen had no other choice but to support his favorite espada.

"Alright, I bet on Gin as well," gave up Aizen and returned his attention the starring unfolding. The battlefield now resembled more of a rainforest than a desert: tall, trees, lianas, pieces of wood scattered everywhere. It was much harder to identify the location of the couple, but sometimes, the light of the moon reflected from Gin's weapon, giving out their current location.

"And I'll bet on Leila!" announced Grimmjow, looking smug. The other two men had no idea what gave the other such confidence, but both of them were curious - each one to a different degree.

"What makes you so sure?" Aizen asked.

"Ha! You'll see..."

Meanwhile, among the trees the battle was reaching its conclusion. Both of the fighters were tired, especially Leila. Gin didn't give her a second to relax. His attacks were becoming more fierce and unpredictable. She already had many minor wounds and bruises, when her opponent seemed to be almost untouched. It irritated her more than anything else.

Suddenly, Gin appeared behind her. He put the hand on her stomach and whispered, after licking the trail of blood from her neck, "I've never seen you looking sexier in my life."

Leila was quick to turn around and ceroed right at Gin, but he was faster.

"I'm serious, fairy-chan," said Gin sitting on a pile of wood behind Leila's back. As she turned around, he continued attacking her at full speed.

Grimmjow was getting bored from observing the show, especially because he could almost not see anything at all.

"This sucks," Grimmjow finally said and yawned to confirm his boredom. But what he didn't expect was for Aizen to share his opinion.

"You are right", the ruler of Las Noches agreed. With a snap of his fingers, the battlefield exploded with a blinding white light, destroying everything what happened to be inside the giant white sphere.

"Are you insane, you crazy bastard?!" Grimmjow roared, "You fucking killed them!"

"Still too harsh, they are not that easy to kill."

And he was right. In the middle of a shell-hole stood Gin and Leila, fairly battered but alive nevertheless. With a huff Grimmjow flopped down his chair and gave out a sigh. He didn't know why he was getting so worked up over this. But his attention immediately shifted to the fighters. Gin was holding Leila tight from the behind with zanpakutou placed against her neck. The girl weakly tried to get free, but Gin's iron grip wouldn't allow it.

"Well, you lost, Grimmjow," Aizen summed up, looking extremely pleased, which annoyed sexta.

"It's not over yet." pressed Grimmjow.

"Don't be such a sore loser, trash. You just look even more pathetic," Ulquiorra put in.

"Shut up and watch."

"Are you giving up, princess?" Gin asked half mockingly. He loved holding his Leila like that; she was so hot in his arms, breathing heavily. If only the surroundings were a little different, he would gladly push her down and had his way with her. He could only imagine what it would be like to be with her, after watching her eyes shine with passing during the battle. Yes, if only he could...

Out of nowhere, he felt extreme pain in his crotch. Not in the slightest did he expect such a traitorous move from Leila. But the girl took that chance. It was the only chance she got.

"Wild Rose Prison!" she shouted and hundreds of vines appeared from the ground, wrapped around the shinigami, and forced him to the ground, leaving only his face to be seen. He couldn't move an inch and Leila was already hovering over him activating her cero. Gin could already feel the heat of it with the skin on his face, but was too mesmerized by the beautiful victorious expression on his beloved's face: her hair was blown by the hot air coming from the cero; the eyes were shining; mouth half-open. She had won both the battle and his heart completely.

"That's enough," ordered Aizen, "You did well, Leila. Congratulations."

After saying that, Aizen left the garden, followed by his loyal espada. Only Grimmjow stayed, wanting to congratulate his precious student personally.

"Very nice, woman. I'm glad it wasn't complete waste of my time."

"Thank you Grimmjow. I owe you," Leila said.

"You don't owe me anything and neither am I. See ya!"

"Goodnight Grimmy." Gin waved his hand to the disappearing figure of sexta. He lost the battle but surprisingly he didn't feel defeated at all. On the contrary.

"I'll wait you in my room," Gin whispered to his fairy in the ear, "let's finish what we started."

* * *

><p><em>I'm going to finish this story just like I promised. Here is an illustration to the previous chapter artBaptism-of-fire-312025077_


	14. Chapter 14: The Beginning of an End

**Chapter 14:**

**The Beginning of an End**

Softly, quietly, as if afraid to make a sound, the beautiful girl was tiptoeing along the dark corridor of Las Noches. It was deadly quiet in the palace and it seemed that even a dropped pin would echo like a cannon-ball shot. However, Leila could only hear the mad beating of her own heart, pulsating and drumming in her ears. Mixed emotions were tearing her apart - she was very excited and extremely scared at the same time. She knew what was waiting for her behind those tall doors. She knew that there will be no going back once she had stepped inside.

She kept telling herself to calm down but it hardly did her any good. She kept telling herself that there was nothing to be afraid of, but the fear of unknown was strong. But so was the anticipation of being with Gin. She didn't want to wait any longer, especially not knowing what tomorrow might bring. There was no time to hesitate.

And there she found herself standing in front of Gin's door, her hand was shaking when she reached for the golden knob. With the last gathered willpower she slowly turned it and carefully pushed the door open. Reluctantly, squeaking tiredly, the tall door had opened, inviting the trembling as an autumn leaf girl inside.

The fraud moon was shining through the window, letting the dim light in. Gin was sitting on the window-sill, looking at the never-ending desert, his posture relaxed, and face serine. It seemed like the man was enveloped in a cocoon of his own sweet memories, thoughts he did not wish to share with anyone else in this world.

Without a rush, he turned towards Leila and reached out his arm, inviting her come in, gentle genuine smile present on his moonlighted face, "You came, dear fairy. I have been waiting for you."

Sweet voice, familiar features, his gentle shine made it impossible for her to waiver. How could she even have doubts or fear in the first place when all she wanted at the moment was to belong to the man in front of her, to give him everything she had. It didn't matter what others might think or say of her, what Sousuke might say. They might not even care anyway. The only thing in the world that is important was Gin.

Gin.

"Gin," she whispered, vocalizing her private thoughts.

The voice whispering his name took Gin's breath away. In his room, next to his bed stood the woman, no, the creature from heights above dressed in all white, like a bride on a wedding night. Her hair was down, ocean like waives falling on her shoulders reaching her waist. The pure white chiffon night robe was played by the wind, revealing the satin lace slip - very short and very alluring design revealed toned sexy legs. Her cheeks were flushed a lovely shade of pink, chest rising and falling as she was taking deep breaths.

The scene in front of him made Gin's throat go dry, he had to gulp to make the feeling go away. The shinigami had been waiting for this moment for so long, countless times imagining the two of them together like this, and now, when it was really happening he couldn't help but feeling a tingling sensation in his limbs. He was so hungry for her, it took a lot of willpower just to stand still. He remembered the heat of the battle not so long ago, her graceful moves, and the curves of Leila's flexible body...

Slowly, like a predator Gin was coming closer, as if purposefully building the suspense. For a second Leila forgot how to breathe, her body froze with agonizing anticipation, eyes fixated on Gin's form. She only came to her senses when two large warm hands were places on her shoulders.

"Beautiful. You look absolutely stunning," the tall man whispered in her ear, soft lips slightly brushing the skin. Leila gasped for air as the blood rushed in her veins, spreading the sweet drug through her body. Gin's scent was driving her mad, head spinning. Adroit fingers easily dived under the fabric of the robe, making in silently fall unto the ground without Leila even realizing it. She only realized that her robe was gone when Gin's hands were stroking up and down her arms, her neck and cupped her face.

The silver haired man looked into those pretty dark eyes for a long moment, wanting to engrave the look in his memory forever before he leaned in a kiss. It started as a gentle kiss but soon became more passionate. Leila found herself completely dominated by Gin, his skillful hand were roaming all over her back in a chaotic torturous manner. One of his hands reached the lower back and went further down, lifting up the hem of the silky slip and cupped one of her checks, squeezing it gently.

Suddenly, a soft moan escaped her lips. If felt strange hearing her own voice echoing around the room. She felt so weak, drowned in never-ending kissed and caresses she had to hold onto Gin's white cloak gripping it tightly. It didn't go unnoticed by the shinigami. He didn't want to force Leila stand any longer, so he slowly guided them both to the bed until Leila's legs pushed against the edge. The next moment both of them were laying on the bed with Gin hovering on top of the girl, right leg pressed between her legs, pushing it in a teasing manner, which earned him another whimper. Satisfied with the reaction, Gin smiled wildly, happy with himself.

Unhurriedly, the blue eyed man pushed the slip's strap down and placed a feather-like kiss on Leila's shoulder. Smooth, soft skin contacted his lips, he inhaled the intoxicating aroma of Leila's unique scent - she smelled like a rose, a desert rose. He was so deeply and irreversibly in love. How could it have happened to him? How did he allow himself to fall this much? No, this was not right. This love, this madness could be the end of him. Nobody will win. He couldn't, not when he came this far.

Rangiku.

The two of them didn't even have a chance. Not in this life. Gin was a realist. He didn't think he would make it out alive after attempting to kill Aizen. Even if the self-proclaimed God wouldn't finish him off, the soul society's higher-ups will. He wasn't that naive to rely on their allegiance after everything he has done.

"I love you, Gin," confessed Leila looking earnestly at him, trusting him completely, loving him unconditionally. The doubts the shinigami has been having were gone in an instant. He _did_ loved Leila, he loved her so much it hurt. No matter what will happen tomorrow they still had that night. Even if that night was all they had, Gin would take it without a question.

"Forgive me, love. I will make you mine tonight, fairy. Come here."

The night of passion, the night of love, the night of desire. The concept of time was lost for the two of them as their joined bodies were moving in unison. Both of them concealed in their own private world, far away from the bitter truth, inescapable reality that would soon hit them hard and painfully, without any warning, not giving any time at all.

* * *

><p>Gin's eyes flew wide open as the piercing sound of an emergency siren ringing like a mad beast. He sat up in an instant, grabbing his zanpakutou in one hand and fishing the kimono from the floor with the other.<p>

"What's going on?" Leila was up as well, her gaze disoriented. She was covering her naked body with the blanket, staring at Gin with a frightened expression on her face. But Gin didn't have time to explain anything. That annoying siren was an intruder's alert, which meant that the base was under attack. The Shinigami had to get to the meeting room as fast as he could, otherwise he would make Aizen mad without a doubt.

"Gotto go, we are under attack," Gin hurriedly explained putting his zanpakutou safely on his hip.

"What?!"

"No time. Sorry, love. I'll see you later."

Gin was about to flash step out of the room but he couldn't do it without saying a proper good morning and goodbye to his lover. Hastily, he jumped back on the bed and attacked Leila with a deep slow kiss, lazily caressing her with his tongue, enjoying the moment as if he had the whole time in the world. It didn't take Leila too long to respond and she circled her arms around her loved one's neck to bring him closer. She wanted them to merge together completely, because she didn't imagine her existence without Gin now. The single thought about being apart from him sounded absurd.

"Need to go," Gin whispered after letting his teeth go of Leila's lower lip, "Bye, my little one."

With that the man flash stepped outside his room and started running in the direction of the meeting room at full speed. He had run past few of the espada members who were also going in the same direction but they didn't seem to be in the same rush he was in, and thanks goodness for that.

When he reacher the meeting room, Aizen and Tousen were already there; that much he had expected at least. His mind was clouded from the lack of sleep, his heart was filled with contradicting emotions but there was no helping it. He had to let it go for now and concentrate on the task at hand. With his usual smile placed firmly back on, he pushed the door open and entered the room.

"Good morning, captain!"

The grand entrance earned the silver shinigami a full attention from the two occupants of the room.

"Good morning, Gin. It is nice to see you are in the best of your moods no matter the circumstance." Aizen stood up from the chair he was sitting on.

"Why, thank you, captain. But you don't seem to be awfully troubled yourself either or so it seems. It was getting rather boring lately, don't you agree?"

Gin was saying his lines as if on autopilot. He knew this role so well he didn't even need to think anymore to say stuff he was expected to say. His mind was racing, however, calculating the countless possibilities of the next turn of events. But over and over again he came to the same conclusion - the countdown had begun and there is nothing he can do to stop it now. Everything has been set in motion. It was only a matter of days, no, hours until they would leave this place and enter the world of the living, and then he will have to no matter what...

"I guess you are right, Gin. This _is_ what we all have been waiting for so long, is it not?"

Absentmindedly, Gin nodded, "Indeed, captain."

"Well, let us be going. My espada are already waiting for us."

The three of them moved in the direction of the door with Aizen in the lead. Gin was following him behind closely, walking slightly on the right side, and Tousen was right behind him. Gin didn't feel anything but the numbness, his own footsteps echoing loudly in his ears, as if counting down the seconds until his execution. But he felt nothing, he saw nothing, the feeling of complete emptiness washed over his heart. There was nothing but the vigorous reality, the consequences of the choices he had made. But he felt nothing. No remorse, no regret, no hope.

Nothing.

His entire future was covered by complete inescapable nothingness. But it didn't bother him. That's what he was trying to make himself believe in.

"Good morning, espada," Aizen announced as the trio came into the spacious room. All the members of espada were sitting around the table looking expectedly at the newcomers. Aizen eyed each one of them before continuing.

"We are under attack."

_A/N: Thank you for your patience and for sticking up with the story. Special thanks to **Orange** for the latest comment. It really did help me write this chapter knowing somebody wants to read more. But fear not, for like I said before I will finish this story. The ending had been written a long time ago so please stay with me a little more. Lots of love._


	15. Chapter 15: Complications

**Chapter 15: Complications**

"We are under attack," velvet authoritarian voice informed all present in the room. Grimmjow shifted his position in obnoxious and extremely uncomfortable chair sitting across from Ulquiorra and snorted. What a great way to begin the day.

"First of all, shall I pour some tea?"

Grimmjow had to restrain himself not to roll his eyes. Their boss was too obsessed with the tea in his opinion that was for sure. From the corner of his eye he had noticed Gin gliding to the table to prepare tea for everyone. The uncomfortable pause hovered over the table while everyone waited for the tea to be made, and only the occasional jingling of china reached them from the corner of the room.

Slowly, almost too slowly Gin put the cups with the steaming liquid in front of all the present around the table. Grimmjow watched every lazy move of the silver shinigami as he was doing the task with a growing irritation, jerking his foot. All he wanted to do was to get out of there as fast as possible. The gathering of the espada always gave him a cold, sticky feeling in his gut. Finally, when the tea that no one intended to drink, except maybe for Aizen, was served, the leader began.

"Everyone should've received their cup, right? Well, then, please listen to me while you drink. Kaname, the projection," Aizen commanded, and his loyal follower pulled on the lever. The center of the table had opened and the bright light emerged from the opening. After a few seconds, when his eyes got used to the light, Grimmjow saw a hologram created by the projector. It showed three figures of the men running, and one of them was dressed as a shinigami.

Shinigami.

Grimmjow's heart skiped a beat. Could it be...

"These are three intruders," Aizen continued to explain, "Ishida Yryuu. Sado Yasutora. Kurosaki Ichigo."

Kurosaki Ichigo.

Grimmjow stared at the hologram, shocked. He didn't hear or saw anything else what was going on in the room. Frankly, he didn't even care. Most importantly, Kurosaki was here. He was going to come to the palace soon and the sexta would have another chance to fight him. That day might not turn so bad after all. Was it the greatest gift of fate, or what?

The man still remembered their last encounter. How could he possibly forget? The massive scar over his chest reminded it to him every day! Oh yes, he still remembered: the bitter loss, the humiliation, the desperation, and most importantly, the thrill! Heavens know how much fun it was to fight that human and how much it would be to crush him!

Too preoccupied with his own thoughts, Grimmjow did notice neither Aizen watching his reaction, nor Ulquiorra lowering his eyes. For the forth espada it was too easy to read his blue haired colleague's reactions. He was too obvious. Too harsh. He was never going to change, but he didn't expect him to.

Not able to sit on the spot any longer, Grimmjow slammed his hand to the table and stood up, breaking Harribel and Nniotra's argument. The blood was rushing through his body, his hands we itching for battle - it was an instinct. Pure, raw animal instinct nothing but the heat of a nice battle would satisfy.

Aizen's voice, cold and calculating made the arrancar stop in his tracks, "Where are you going, Grimmjow?"

"I'm going to kill them," was a fast reply. "It's better to squash these bugs sooner than later, right?" But the response didn't seem to satisfy the ruler of Las Noches as much as Grimmjow had hoped.

"Aizen-sama hasn't issued an order yet," the left hand man butted in, "Return to your seat."

For a longest time Grimmjow had hated Tousen deeply, especially since the bastard had chopped his arm of. He would never forget and would never forgive that damn shinigami. He had sworn to himself, the first chance he gets, he will reap his heart out with his bare hands...

"I'm going to kill them for Aizen-sama's sake!" the sexta barked in response, losing his patience.

"Grimmjow," said Aizen in a deed voice without turning around.

"Yes?"

"I'm happy that you would act on my behalf, but I wasn't done speaking. Could you please return to your seat?"

For the longest moment Grimmjow was standing on the spot not moving an inch and staring at Aizen's back. He was so tired of being ordered around, tired of the stupid rules he had to follow, tired of not having control over his own damn life. He felt so much free back then, when he was just running around the endless desert, killing every hollow he saw in sight. Was it really the right decision to become what he is now? Wasn't the price for the power was too high? Was it really worth it?

"What is it?" Aizen asked after a pause. "I can't hear you, Grimmjow Jaegerjaques."

A terrifying amount of spiritual pressure collapsed on the sexta. His body felt as heavy as an iron, his muscles were screaming from pain of trying to keep his body standing, his stomach was twisting and turning. He was quite lucky he didn't have time for breakfast that morning otherwise the content of his stomach might've ended up on the floor.

Not able to keep his body steady, Grimmjow fell to the floor, grimacing from terrible pain. It seemed that was enough for his boss, because he released the pressure momentarily. Grimmjow quickly turned away from the table. He didn't want the others to see his pathetic state. Just how much humiliation was he going to take? When will it be enough for that excuse of a leader?

He was still breathing heavily and stayed on rooted to his spot until Aizen dismissed everybody, ordering to return to their rooms. When he had heard the sound of others leaving the room, he decided it was time for him to do the same. He stood up, still feeling the aftershock of Aizen's "discipline" and shook himself off. Only then did he notice the gaze fixated on him. It was Ichimaru Gin.

The silver shinigami was standing further by the column in the darkness of the room and Grimmjow didn't notice him at first. But as it turned out, the trickster was able to observe everything that was happening better that anybody else. Smiling his usual smile, the lavender haired man came to Grimmjow and after making sure everyone left the room, he began.

"That didn't look too pleasant, ne?"

"Piss off shinigami," Grimmjow barked, irritated. The last thing he needed right now was Gin's remarks.

"Don't get too excited, Grimmy. We all know how it ends, don't we? Besides, I didn't intend to lecture you. I was going to ask you to do something for me."

Grimmjow frowned. If his memory served him right, there was not a single time when the shinagami's favors ended up well. He always seemed to find trouble when it came to Gin. So there was no surprise Grimmjow was more than a little suspicious.

"What do you want?"

"Oh, not much. Just go to my room and escort Leila back to the garden. Tell her I will visit her later, will you? We are gonna be kinda busy here, ya know?"

"Fine. Whatever."

Grimmjow turned around and left the meeting room heading in the direction of Gin's private room. Luckily it wasn't too far and by now he knew the way very well. The thoughts about Ichigo didn't leave him. He decided to go hunt the human down right after he was done with Gin's task.

He pushed the tall door open without even thinking to knock on it first, which was too reckless on his part. Half naked woman was lying across the bed reading a book without a care for the world.

"What the hell..." was all Grimmjow could say at the moment. His eyes ran across her bare tempting legs and stopped at the exposed toned buttocks. As soon as Leila saw Grimmjow at the door, she squealed and hurriedly put on her rob.

Grimmjow seemed to recover from his initial shock, and smirked, "Just what the two of you were doing here I wonder? Ha! I hope he didn't disappoint you, woman."

Leila became as red as a beet and lowered her eyes.

"Stop it, Grimmjow."

"Whatever. It's really none of my business. I'm just here to escort you back to the garden. Everyone is going nuts over here because of the intruders?"

"Intruders?" Leila echoed as she followed Grimmjow out the door.

"Yeah. There are three of them but they are no big deal, except for one. I really want to fight him."

"Oh. I see."

Luckily, the road back to the garden didn't take too long.

"Well we are here. Just wait in the garden, ok? I'm sure Gin or Aizen will show up soon and explain the situation to you."

"Alright. Thank you, Grimmjow."

"Yeah. I'll see you when I see you."

Content with finishing his task without any issues, the sixth espada happily headed to search for his pray, anticipating the thrill of the upcoming battle.

* * *

><p>Grimmjow wasn't sure how long has it been, but it took him many hours to find the trail of Ichigo's reatsu. The second he felt it he ran to that location at top speed. But to his dismay the reatsu became weaker and weaker. Grimmjow just snorted and rushed forward with more speed. But he came too late.<p>

Among the tower ruins he saw Ichigo's lifeless body with a whole coming from his back. Ulquiorra's figure was towering above him, right hand soaked in blood. Rage washed over the sexta. He had been waiting for so long to fight the human only to find him dead? No, that wasn't fare. Damn Ulquiorra!

In a flash Grimmjow appeared in front of the shorter man, and after grabbing him by his collar, roared, "What the hell did you do, Cifer! He was my pray!"

With his inherent indifference, Ulquiorra easily brushed the hand off him, "I have my reasons."

"What reasons?!"

"I'm not expecting you to understand them, trash."

Ulquiorra left the half-destroyed tower without saying another word, leaving Grimmjow fuming with indignation. But sexta refused to take it. He squatted down and touched human's neck looking for pulse. And to his great surprise he found it. It was very weak but it was still there. How he managed to stay alive with such a wound Grimmjow couldn't comprehend, but it didn't matter. He had to act fast if he wanted to fight Ichigo. And the only person who could help was on the other side of the castle - Orihime Inoe.

Without wasting any more precious time the arrancar made a dash through the door. It didn't matter what it took to bring that woman to the wounded shinigami substitute, but the sexta was willing to go to all lengths in order to obtain the desired. Halfway through Grimmjow slowed down his past in order to catch a breath. He was walking past the kitchen when unusual scene caught his eyes.

Gin was standing at the counter, trying to rip the instant coffee bag. His hands were trembling, refusing to listen to him; his movements were clumsy and jerky- so unlike Gin. Grimmjow frowned looking at the scene. He knew something was very wrong with the shinigami, he just didn't imagine the extent of his off balanced state.

After several failed attempts, Gin tossed the bag on the floor with the loud cry. He started throwing everything he saw in sight on the floor, as he had gone mad. There was something wild and desperate in his movements.

"Hey, Gin," Grimmjow called stepping inside the kitchen. The crunching sound of the broken glass under his feet could be heard as he walked. Gin stilled in an instant, realizing he was no longer alone. For a few seconds he didn't answer, still breathing heavily, and didn't turn around hiding his face from the espada.

"I just wanted to get some coffee..." Gin explained without turning.

"I can see that."

"Because I _hate_ tea."

The espada looked puzzled for a moment but then decided to take his leave as soon as possible. He most certainly didn't have time to deal with shinigami's mood swings at the moment. But when he was about to leave, he felt a strong grip on his right wrist.

"No, wait!"

As the sexta turned around, he saw a pair of icy blue mad eyes piercing through his very soul. It was the first time he saw Gin's eyes and Grimm was somewhat hoping it was the last time as well, because the look he was sending a chill running down his spine.

"I need you to do something for me," Gin blurt out, not loosening his grip.

"Oh, come on! That's enough, alright! I'm very busy at the moment."

"Grimmjow, this is the last thing I'll ask you to do, I promise. You do that and we are square."

After eyeing the man suspiciously, the arrancar gave up, "Fine. What is it?"

The silver shinigami pulled out a peony flower from his cloak and handed it to the espada. "Just give this to Leila the next time you see her for me, alright?"

With an interest Grimmjow inspected the strange flower in his hand, observing how something was flowing through its' veins. He was curious but didn't have time to ask. "Fine. I'll do it. I'm going."

"Goodbye, Grimmjow," Gin said to the departing espada.

Grimmjow didn't see the sadness in the eyes of the always smiling man; neither did he understand the meaning of the last phrase. He mind was only focused on the upcoming battle. The sounds of the fighting and explosions sounded all around as Grimmjow was running through the dark hallway of Las Noches to start the death match he was so desperately trying to have.

_A/N: Thank you everyone for reading, commenting(momo552 ;) ) and adding my story. You all helped me to make it happen. The next chapter - Desert Rose - is the final chapter of this story and it's coming soon._


	16. Chapter 16: Desert Rose

**Chapter 16: Desert Rose**

_"This desert rose_

_Each of her veils, a secret promise_

_This desert flower_

_No sweet perfume ever tortured me more than this"_

Sting "Desert Rose"

Leila was pacing up and down the road, nervously running her fingers over the fabric of her dress. She had already seen Aizen and Ulquiorra when they stopped by the garden, but Gin was nowhere in sight and every passing second made her more nervous. She wanted so badly to just go inside and find him, but she couldn't break the promise she gave to Aizen. Besides, Grimmjow said that Gin would come, so she just had to trust him. To believe in Gin.

Suddenly, the door got opened and the silver shinigami stepped inside the garden where it all began. His beautiful eyes looked straight at his dear fairy, not without a slight sadness, but with love. Leila was about to rush over and cover him in kisses, but the man stopped her by a raise of his hand.

"We need to talk, dear one."

Leila felt as if ice cold water was poured over her head. The sinking feeling in her stomach and the pain in her chest wouldn't let her say a word so she just nodded.

"I have to go somewhere you cannot follow."

"No, Gin, please take me with you," she pleaded, finally finding her voice again, "Is… is that because of her?"

Gin was quite for a long moment. Then after gathering his own thoughts, he spoke, "There is one thing I must do and I might be the only one with the ability to do it. I made a vow to myself a long time ago and I'm not about to back down now. I sacrificed too much for that," finished Gin almost in whisper. Leila tried to stay calm but tears started to form in her dark eyes.

"Are you going to kill him? Are you going to kill Sousuke?" she asked in a shaky voice.

What could he say? Only the truth. He owned her that much.

"Yes," came out as a whisper.

Leila couldn't hold back her swirling emotions anymore. She put he hands around shinigami's neck and started crying, begging him not to kill Aizen and stay with her. Her sobs, her overwhelming scent was killing him, rotting him from the inside, but he didn't have the right. He couldn't do that. There was no way he would break his promise after all this time. No matter how his heart was breaking to pieces at that moment, no matter how much he wanted to give in to her gentle touch, no matter how much he wanted to dissolve himself in Leila's love, he couldn't.

Gently, he took his fairy by the shoulders and whispered, "Leila."

The girl shuddered from hearing her name because it was the first time those divine lips whispered it. She lifted her head and saw the most beautiful blue eyes gazing at her mysteriously, captivating, and so loving. Gin slowly cupped her cheek with his hand.

"Leila," he repeated, "It's going to be fine. There are a lot of things happen in life. Good and bad. But you should keep on living. Everyone has their own reason for living. I have mine and you should find yours. Find something that is worth living for, something that is worth even dying for. And once you found it, no matter what don't give up. I'm happy I've met you. I have no regrets."

The blue eyes were slowly closing as Gin was leaning in closer to her face, closing unneeded distance between them. Leila's lips were very hot and soft but he could taste her salty tears. It made his heart sink. The last thing in the world he wanted to do was to make her cry, but there was no other way. He broke the kiss and stepped back making the distance between them.

Leila was too disoriented to understand what was going on. She didn't want to lose the Gin's warmth just yet. Not now, not ever. But there was more than just her desires. Taking the opportune moment, Gin lifted his finger pointing at his fairy.

"Way of Binding no. 61 'Six-Staff Light Prison'," he whispered hiding the eyes behind long bangs. Before Leila realized what was happening, she was bound by the yellow wide beams of light making her enable to move.

"What is... No! Gin, please, don't do this! Gin!" she shouted devastated. Her body was shaking as if from a fever. But Gin was deaf to her pleading, and put his palm forward, finishing what he had started. He created a golden cube barrier around the crying girl. He had to make sure she was safe after he was gone. The garden was one of the best places to hide in the palace.

Leila kept on screaming but he could no longer hear her. And neither could she hear the words whispered to her, but she understood what he was saying by the movements of his lips. The words she always wanted to hear. The three most important words...

She squeezed her eyes shut no longer able to take the pain from looking at Gin go. But, when she opened them again he was already gone.

"NO!" she screamed on top of her lungs but no one could hear her voice anymore. She was left alone in the garden under eternal moonlight.

* * *

><p>She didn't know how long had it been since Gin had left her, but Leila was out of tears. Her eyes were hurting and most certainly looked very red. She had a lot of time to do some thinking while she was stuck in the cube. At first she hoped that the spell would weaken as the time went by but it seemed Gin didn't hold back creating her temporary prison. Besides, it was time that she didn't have. If she was hoping to fix things before it was too late she had to act and act fast.<p>

Summoning all the powers she had, she made the vines appear from the ground. Soon, the cube was filled with green plants and with a great effort Leila was able to break it. Once free, she rushed to the door inside the castle but it didn't look how she remembered - damaged from all the fighting that was going on while she was sitting and doing nothing in the garden. She scolded herself for wasting so much precious time. She just hoped it wasn't too late already.

Unable to feel any familiar riatsu, she ran outside, planning to climb as high as she could to get a better view of everything that was going on. But, unfortunately for her, even though she was able to avoid bumping into someone until now, her luck just ran out. She stopped in her tracks immediately as soon as she spotted shinigami's uniform. She knew who they were and what they did, which is why it was unwise to expect any mercy from them, especially from a captain the stranger seemed to be.

Tall man had dark shoulder length hair, beautiful youthful face, and grey eyes. However, his serene expression had changed as soon as he saw Leila. He swiftly pulled out his zampakuto, preparing for the battle. Leila took her fighting stance as well, preparing herself for the worse. The man in front of her was strong, very strong. She could feel in with every sell of her body. She doubted she would be able to win, but she had to try, even if she had to fight her way out she was ready. Nothing could stop her to find the man she loved.

"Zenbonzakura scatter," the shinigami captain commanded.

Leila watched with both fascination and fear as the blade separated into tiny slender blade fragments and started flying away from the hilt, shining in a pretty lavender color. Before she knew it, the young arrancar was surrounded by a sea of cherry blossoms. And then it hit her. She knew who the man was!

"Byakuya?" she asked hesitantly, standing up straighter from her fighting stance. The man did seem surprised by unusual behavior but his face hardly showed it.

"How do you know me?" he asked slightly lowering his weapon, but not yet dismissing his shikai.

"Gin told me about you. How the two of you became captains, and how much he loved to tease you. And that you like flowers as much as I do."

The captain of the sixth division stared at the strange girl, hesitant at what to do. She didn't seem dangerous but seemed to know too much for his comfort.

"And who would you be?" the stoic man asked.

"I'm Leila. I know it sounds insane, but please let me go. I need to find Gin. He is about to do something very irrational and I need to stop him before it's too late," she pleaded.

For a longest moment, the shinigami kept quiet. Then, he summoned his shikai back and put away his weapon. "He is not here. He left with Aizen to the world of the living, and they sealed all the exits. Noone can go in or out of this place for the time being."

Leila staggered as from a slap on the face. Was she too late? Was it all had been for nothing. And just when she thought she couldn't cry anymore, a new betrayer escaped her dark eye. But this time she quickly wiped it off, pulling herself together. There was still hope. She wouldn't give up just yet. After a quick "thank you" the girl flash stepped on top of the closest roof to get a better view over the surroundings.

However, another tower was too much in the way so she decided to go higher. Then suddenly she felt a familiar riatsu. A wave of relieve from feeling a familiar person amongst the ruins filled her heart as she dashed to the destination, more carefully this time to avoid unwanted encounters. However, she was not prepared to see the condition her former teacher was in.

* * *

><p>Darkness. Cold, bone chilling darkness was all around. It seemed to enter his body, his mind and his soul. He felt like he had already spent en eternity in that place, as if he didn't ever exist. But then he felt something wet and the voice calling his name.<p>

Weird.

What was going on?

Grimmjow made an effort to concentrate on the voice and it was gradually becoming louder and louder until his eyes flew wide open and he saw Leila hovering over him, shouting if not in her own voice and telling him to try to get up. He felt something wet on his cheeks.

_Was she crying? Why was she crying?_

"Why in hell are you crying, stupid woman?" asked Grimmjow trying to sound irritated by it came out as a whisper.

"You are alive! I thought you were never going to wake up," cried Leila, not holding back her tears. "Now, we need to get out of here. Please, I need your help. Hold on to me and stand up."

Grimmjow had no idea how he managed to stand up. But pain was too strong for him to handle and he blacked out.

The next time he came to his senses, they were walking in ruins of Las Noches heading to the only place Leila thought was save, to the only place was left. When they made it to the garden Leila helped Grimmjow to sit down. Grimmjow leaned against the cold surface of a rock wincing from pain. With the wounds he had he was lucky to even stay conscious.

"Wait here," commanded the girl and left. Grimmjow was trying to catch up on what had happened. There was Ichigo and they were fighting, he unleashed his pantera. He didn't want to lose. Then he remembered Nniotra showing and then there was unbearable pain, the feeling of being split in two pieces. Everything went black after that. But when he thought he would be swallowed by darkness, he saw warm light and still voice was calling his name.

Leila saved him. If it wasn't for her, he was done do. No matter how hard it was to admit it was true. This body was hurting all over. It seemed there was no healthy cell left in him. Even looking sideways hurt his eyes unbearably. Why did it have to end this way?

Without him noticing at first, Leila came back with a bunch of grass in her hands. She sat next to injured man and started spreading green substance on top of his wounds.

"What the hell is this?" Grimmjow asked, looking suspiciously at the medicine.

"It will help your wounds to heal faster," she explained, finishing spreading the substance against his worst looking wound. At that moment, Grimmjow really looked at her for the first time since they escaped. Her, once snow white dress was covered in bloodstains and dirt, torn in some places; her feet and slender hands were in bruises and scratches, and some of the wounds were still bleeding. Her hair was messy and no longer perfectly styled. She looked very tired, exhausted, especially her eyes. They were so distant and full of sadness, in contrast to her usual lively ones. She raised her hands hovering over his wounds and released her riatsu.

"I didn't know that you had healing powers," noted Grimmjow looking Leila in the eyes.

"I don't," Leila corrected, and after a pause, added, "I only make the healing elements of this plant to work faster, that's all."

"Oh, and how did you learn to do that?" he was just trying to keep the conversation but, by the way the girl's hands trembled, he understood that he said something wrong.

"I learned it from the book. Gin used to bring me a lot of books about the plants so that I can learn and use the knowledge in a combat. Some of those books were on healing power of plants. That's how I know," she finished.

Grimmjow was quiet for a moment. He didn't know that to say. He usually didn't when it came to Leila. Then he remembered about the flower Gin gave him and took it out of the inside pocket of his jacket that miraculously was still there.

"Here. This if for you," murmured Grim and handed the girl Gin's flower. Leila immediately recognized the peony that she made out of shinigami's riatsu. With trebling hands she took it from the blue eyed espada, then brought the flower to her face and deeply inhaled the sweet aroma. His beautiful riatsu was still running through its' veins which meant Gin was still alive. Suddently, her body became weak and she leaned on Grimmjow's shoulder without moving away the flower from her face for a second. The espada looked down at her peaceful sleeping face and gave in to his own tiredness as well.

* * *

><p>Grimmjow woke up from loud piercing sound of hollows' screaming. He turned his head to the right and saw hundreds of hollows trying to get through the barrier that surrounded the garden. At that moment Grimmjow was very grateful to Aizen for making it so strong. He shook Leila's shoulder trying to wake her up. The girl slowly opened her eyes displeased with the rude treatment.<p>

"Well, look for yourself, sleepin' beauty," barked Grimmjow angrily.

"Oh, no!" whispered Leila in desperation.

"That's right. We are in deep shit," muttered espada scratching the back of his head.

"No," Leila whispered from her own little world, from her own reality. There were just too many of them, there was no way the two of them would make it out of there alive.

No way?

Something inside Leila snapped, as if a wall inside her mind was broken. Everything became more clear and vivid. Then she smiled. That's what he always did. No matter what. There _was_ still hope. There was still time so she would not give up.

''Ha? What do you mean 'no'? Are you ready to give up and die here?! Well, as hell _I'm_ not!" sexta yelled.

"No!" she cut firmly and liana appeared from the ground, gently, yet firmly pushed Grimmjow back down making him enable to move. Meanwhile, the hollows seemed to break through the barrier and were moving very fast in their direction, circling them, making no escape possible.

"What the hell are you doing?! Have you gone insane? Let me go, Leila!"

Leila slowly stood up, singing softly,

_"Twinkle, twinkle, little fairy."_

She raised her right hand in the air. Her bloody dress was blown by the wind. All Grimmjow could do was stare at her. _Did she really loose it?_ Why in hell was she singing that stupid song now? Were they just going to die here like dogs? No! He was not ready to die here. Not just yet. He wanted to protect her. Protect her light that brought him back from the darkness.

_"I love you cause ya not scary."_

Grimmjow's eyes widened as he saw a zanpactou appearing out of thin air where Leila held out her hand.

Since when did she have zanpactou? Wait, this can't be!

_"In the garden you play hide and seek."_

She took her zanpactou in her hand and tightened the grip.

"_How I wish to take a peek."_

Leila released her reiatsu and all hollows stopped in their tracks, being overwhelmed completely by its pressure. Even Grimmjow started having trouble breathing. He looked up and saw how her expression slowly changed to determine.

_"Twinkle, twinkle, little fairy."_

Leila let the blade face the ground and with one fast motion she pierced the sandy surface.

_"I love you cause you're not scary."_

As she whispered the final verse, her katana started glowing white and many lines started appearing on the ground from the blade, drawing an image of a rose on the ground. But the rose could be only seen from the sky, for it was about a mile in diameter. The white light of those lines was too blinding so Grimmjow had to shut his eyes tight.

At seeing that, Leila put her hand over her friend's eyes, and the light suddenly didn't seem so blinding to Grimmjow anymore. The white shining lines connected, completing the image, and the red rose shone in all its glory with a beautiful and deadly light. Everything the light touched got melted away. One by one every single hollow disappeared, swiped away by the light. Grimmjow couldn't believe his eyes from witnessing such beautiful and yet distractive power.

_That girl._ _Leila..._

"Rosa del desierto," Leila said, announcing the birth of her new ultimate attack. Rosa del desierto - desert rose. That's what she was and always will be - wild, beautiful, and deadly desert rose, shining brightly, like a sun, during the endless night of Hueco Mundo.

The End


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